HOSTAGE : a continuation of the season finale
by Mobeanz
Summary: It’s a race against nature as time runs out for the survivors of Flight 815. The hatch is gone without a trace, and Hurley returns claiming Sawyer, Kate, and Jack have been kidnapped by the Others. The island is falling apart as the survivors struggle to
1. Chapter 1: Separation

The last thing Jack saw before the hoods were replaced over their heads was Kate's eyes and the fear and terror that filled them.

They were now being walked back down the dock. Kate fell hard onto her knees and was helped up by the young girl holding her tied hands. Suddenly she felt hands on her waist, lifting her up. When her feet were set down, she knew she was standing on a very unsteady boat.

Someone shoved her down beside Jack. Jack's hands were aching and his mouth dry and horrible tasting from the dirty gag in it. In his mind, he knew this was his fault. He'd promised them he had a plan, and now they could possibly die for his foolishness. His arm touched Kate's and he knew she was there, thankful to know they weren't separated just yet.

They heard the roar of an engine and the boat came to life. Sawyer knew they were staying near the island because the waves were harsh, as they got near the shoreline. He felt slightly seasick as they went along and knew that vomiting into his hood would not be the best thing to do right now.

It seemed forever as the harsh wind blew, sending sprays of salt water over the edges of the boats as the three of them sat in complete darkness, not being able to communicate with each other. They sat side by side against the side of the boat, their arms touching yet had now way of talking, or saying anything. Jack wondered how many people were on board, and wondered how many people were at the place they were going.

The doctor was wrong, thought Sawyer angrily. He was furious at the cocky doctor but also terrified. These people had killed many survivors, and he knew they weren't merciful when it came to taking hostages. He knew of all the people taken from the tail section of the plane, and suddenly realized there weren't many left. Libby and Ana had been two of the few. Perhaps they would all be wiped out.

The boat seemed to slow and the three of them were thankful. Jack felt almost nauseated from the gag in his mouth and Kate had begun to shiver, freezing from the sprays of water that had soaked her shirt.

Someone harshly grabbed Kate's arm and yanked her up. It definitely wasn't the young girl who had helped her up before. This person paid no attention to her as he thrust he overboard. She felt herself falling and hit the sand, falling to her knees and then to her side.

"EASY!" shouted a voice above her, yanking her up. "Don't throw them around!"

"Sorry!"

Kate heard Sawyer and Jack land beside her. They couldn't leave her. In her mind that was her biggest fear, being left alone without either of them. She felt herself being pushed along and someone was beside her. She tried to figure out whom it was by their arm but couldn't. The inside of the hood was hot and sweaty, and she felt dehydrated.

Jack knew Kate was beside him and wanted to tell her that it was okay, that they'd be fine, but had no way to. They were pushed forward and felt the familiar trees and brush of the jungle. They were still on the island, thought Jack. At least they were still on the island.

There was murmuring and the hand holding Kate left her. She stood there, unsure of what was happening. Then someone else grabbed her and shoved her forward harshly and she struck a firm wall that felt like steel.

"She doesn't have anything on her," said someone angrily, pulling her back. "We checked already."

"Have to make sure," said a deeper, stronger voice that sent chills down Sawyer's spine. "Okay, go through."

"Namaste," said another, more feminine voice.

They had gone indoors, it was obvious from the dimming light and cooler air. Whoever had hold of Sawyer was not steering very well and he crashed several times into the wall. He struggled to straighten himself but only got shoved more. In his mind he could only imagine killing all of these people once his hands were free.

"Okay," said someone behind them.

Quickly, their hoods were ripped off and their gags removed. Kate gagged, coughing and spitting from the dry mouth she had. Jack looked around confusedly.

"You okay?" Sawyer asked, his dry lips cracking as he spoke.

"NO TALKING!"

Someone hit Sawyer hard in the arm with a club and he shouted in pain, grimacing, unable to do anything because of his tied arms.

Looking around, they were in a dim hallway right outside a set of large doors with the Dharma symbol on them. The doors were thick steel and looked filthy and aged. Jack was glancing from the doors to the dim faces around them.

Kate looked at Jack for a long time. They seemed to be waiting for someone, all of the Others staring at the door as they stood several feet from it. This hallway was made of thick plaster that was cracking and leaking water. The floor was puddles of muck and grime. Only two lights, one at each end of the hall lit the area. At the far end where they had entered were cracks in two larger doors to the outside, sunshine streaming through the tiny vents.

For a moment, Jack wondered when he'd see that sunshine again.

"Okay," said a voice. "I got the signal."

The hoods were suddenly replaced.

"JACK!" Kate screamed, fighting out of fear and claustrophobia. It had gotten too real, the door in front of her and the waiting. She suddenly realized this could be it.

"NO!" Jack was shouting, frantically trying to free himself as he was shoved forward.

But there was the sound of the doors opening and they were pushed inside.

"Charlie? Charlie, wake up," Claire was shaking Charlie with one hand while trying to hold onto Aaron with the other. "Please, come on!"

"What?" Charlie groaned groggily. The sun was bright in his face behind Claire. "Oh bugger."

"I need you to watch Aaron while I run to the hatch," she said, pulling him up to a sitting position. "I need to get some things and wash and I can't do it while holding him."

"Okay, okay," Charlie muttered, yawning widely and taking the infant from her. "How're yah doin, turniphead?"

"I thought you'd stopped calling him that?" she asked with a small smile as she picked up her bag of things.

"Yeah well, it still looks like one," Charlie gave her a sleepy smile. "Now go, do your duties."

Claire smiled gratefully and headed off, lugging the large bag of clothes. She hadn't washed her clothes in weeks, and had been hesitant to use the washing machine in the hatch. But now it seemed the only sensible way.

Reaching the path leading straight to the hatch, she noticed something odd. All the smaller trees that were bunched closely together were leaning away, towards the beach. It looked almost as if a very strong wind had come through here, bending them all at their bases. As she continued on, even the dirt looked wind swept, and some of the larger branches were fallen broken across the path. It almost looked like there had been a large storm.

Claire suddenly stopped. She realized she should have reached the hatch by now. Looking around she saw the familiar trees. Backtracking she stopped.

Where the door to the hatch should have been was an enormous amount of dirt and branches. It was raised almost as high as Claire's head. It looked almost like a giant cover-up, like someone had tried for many hours to cover up the entrance to the hatch that had once sat hidden behind some brush and vines. Now it was a mess of fallen trees and churned up dirt. Claire stared, not believing what she was seeing. The thick steel door was no where to be seen.

Dropping her bag she took off towards the beach. Her heart pounded in her throat, maybe she was going crazy. Maybe she'd seen wrong, or taken the wrong path. All she knew was that she had to get Charlie and have him help her. She had to be wrong.

"Charlie!" she shouted as she came out onto the beach. Charlie, who had been sitting with Aaron, playing with him, stood up quickly.

"What is it?" he asked nervously.

"You have to come with me," she panted, taking his free hand. "Come on!"

"What is it?" he asked as she dragged him quickly along the path. He held Aaron tightly, unsure of what Claire was getting at. He let her pull him along. "Are you going to tell me?"

"You have to see it for yourself," she hissed, her mind racing.

They reached the spot where Claire had dropped her bag. Charlie looked down at the spilled clothes.

"You dragged me out here to show me you dropped your clothes?" he asked smartly.

"Where is the hatch door?" she shrieked at him, her hands going to her chest in anxiety. She felt as though her heart would burst from her chest. "CHARLIE! WHERE IS IT?"

Charlie stared for a moment at the enormous heap that should have been the large hatch door, the enormous one that led into a small room before you had to turn the even larger lock. But it was just many fallen trees, churned up dirt, and leaves.

"Oh my god," Charlie whispered more to himself than to Claire, who looked near hysterical. "The hatch is gone."

Sawyer felt himself slammed hard into a door and heard a pair of keys being pulled from someone's pocket.

"You're going to regret this," Sawyer growled, only getting a fist shoved into his lower back again. "You son of a bitch you're going to regret this."

"Shut up," shouted someone, giving him a hard smack in the head with a club. Sawyer groaned, turning his pain into anger.

But he was shoved forward and fell, realizing they had cut his bonds. Ripping off the hood, he stood up quickly only to realize the door had been shut behind him.

Turning around he stared into the darkness. It was dim, the only light coming from under the large door. It seemed to be a small room with white walls and nothing else. The floor was bare.

Before Sawyer could even approach it, the door was opened and at the same time Kate and Jack were shoved inside. Both of their bonds had been cut and they too ripped off their hoods and looked around, terrified.

"Sawyer," Kate stood, hurrying to him and hugging him quickly.

"Is everyone okay?" Jack panted. He had a large bruise on his cheek that was purpling fast.

"Yeah," Kate nodded, looking at Sawyer who wasn't about to tell them he was pretty sure he had cracked a rib.

"What do.."

"Don't," Jack stopped her from talking. "They put us in here together probably to hear what we're thinking, what we want to do. They're listening, it's obvious."

"Jack," was all Kate could say. She looked terrified but seemed to hold a strong chin.

"It's going to be okay," assured Jack, looking at Sawyer who had never looked more furious.

"Michael better hope he never runs into me again in this lifetime," Sawyer growled, breathing harshly from his nose.

"I don't think he's gone," Jack looked around the small, dim room. "They set Michael a course that is probably wrong. Desmond couldn't get away from this island, I doubt Michael could with a set of false coordinates."

"What was that violet light?" Kate asked, crossing her arms more to keep from shaking than as a posture. "And that noise?"

"Something happened," Sawyer looked intensely at Jack. "Why do I have a feeling it had something to do with that button?"

"Why do you say that?" asked Jack. Kate knew he was ready to contradict Sawyer.

"Because of all that magnet mumbo jumbo. I'm not as dumb as I look," Sawyer glared at Jack as though daring him to retort. "Because when it happened, your watch stopped."

"How did you…" Jack looked down at his wrist. "You're right."

"I was looking at it. I guess I wanted to remember the time I died," sighing Sawyer, looked back at them and saw their looks. "What?"

"You think maybe something happened with that magnet in the hatch?" Jack said, suddenly serious. "The one behind that wall?"

"No, the one in Oz. Yes, that one," Sawyer looked frustrated and had begun to pace. "But why are we worrying about that. It didn't blow up the island unless we're dead now and don't know it. So it couldn't have been anything bad."

"I hope everyone's okay," Kate said quietly.

"Everyone? What about us?" Sawyer looked ready to snap. "We're in a freaking prison!"

"Sawyer!" Jack said harshly. "Calm down!"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Sawyer snapped. He put his hands on his hips and looked down, his side aching.

"What will they do to us?" Kate said, her eyes wide as she looked at Jack for answers.

"I don't know," he said honestly.

Kate sat down against the wall and held her knees to her. Jack sat beside her and they watched Sawyer pace angrily for more than an hour. Kate had begun to lean on Jack, and in her mind she was begging him with all her might not to leave her alone.

"Someone's coming," Sawyer froze, almost like a dog hearing a noise outside.

Jack stood and pulled Kate to her feet. The three of them, without even realizing, had backed up against the far wall. Jack had kept one hand on Kate's belt.

The door clicked and opened. In the doorway was the silhouette of a young girl, maybe only 16. She held a large gun in her arms that looked strangely huge compared to her small frame.

"You two guys," she said, pointing at Jack and Sawyer. "Come with me."

Kate gripped Jack's hand so tightly he jumped, looking over at her. The girl pointed her gun at them and for a moment none of them moved.

"There isn't a problem, is there?" said Tom, or Mr. Friendly as they'd known him, opening the door more and standing behind the girl. "Now come on, we don't want to have to use the hoods and gags again."

Jack exchanged a look with Sawyer. He then reached down and squeezed Kate's hand tightly before pushing it off and starting towards the door with Sawyer.

They stepped out and for a moment the light from the door illuminated Kate standing alone against the long bare wall. Then slowly the light descended until it was only a sliver upon her and then it was darkness again, and there was the click of the lock.


	2. Chapter 2: A Familiar Face

"Sayid!"

Sayid looked up. He had been sitting by his tent, separating some tangles wire he'd found stored in the hatch. He supposed he could use it somehow but was untangling it as Charlie came sprinting up the beach towards him.

"What is it?" Sayid asked, immediately seeing the terror in Charlie's eyes.

"The hatch!" he gasped, holding his chest as he gasped for air. "It's gone!"

"What?" Sayid stood. "How?"

"Come on!" Charlie turned and hurried away, Sayid closely behind him. They met up with Claire halfway to the hatch and she followed them, clutching Aaron tightly, her hands trembling.

They reached the enormous pile of debris and Sayid looked around confusedly.

"There is no way it could just disappear. It would take a blast of great force to destroy it, and we would have felt it," Sayid went up to the large mound and began pulling branches off.

"That white light," Claire inquired, her voice shaking slightly. "Maybe it was that."

"That wasn't an explosion," Sayid shook his head, continuing to pull down large branches and clumps of hardened soil.

"Then what was it?" asked Charlie quietly.

"You tell me," Sayid turned to face him. "Weren't you in the hatch when it happened?"

Charlie thought hard but he didn't remember anything like that. The last memory of the hatch he had was seeing Eko carrying dynamite. But a few sticks of dynamite couldn't destroy the hatch.

"Find Locke," Sayid ordered, continuing to dig through it. "And Mr. Eko, and anyone else who can help us. We need strong hands."

Charlie nodded and took off towards the beach. Claire stayed for a moment, looking unsure. Sayid turned, having felt her stare on his back.

"It's okay. Take Aaron and go back to the beach. We'll let you know," Sayid turned away from her and waited for her to walk away. He felt nervous, completely unsure of what he would find when they finished digging this out.

"Sayid!" Charlie returned half an hour later, his face beet red. He came to a stop behind Sayid and fell to his knees, panting. "I can't find Locke or Eko."

"What about anyone else?" asked Sayid, turning around and wiping his brow. His hands were filthy up to his elbows.

"They heard Claire talking and are afraid to come. I think Locke and Eko may have been inside."

"Keep going."

The voice behind Sawyer and Jack urged them forward down this long brightly-lit hallway with many doors on each side, all locked and the windows shaded. Sawyer walked beside Jack, occasionally glancing at the doctor for any sign of fear or hesitation but he showed none.

"Stop."

They came to a half. Jack looked over at Sawyer, seeing he did look terrified. They had stopped outside one of the rooms.

"You first," Tom gripped Jack's arm and opened the door, pushing him inside first. "You wait out here."

Tom slammed the door on Sawyer and the younger girl, who was holding a gun. She looked nervous and Sawyer knew he could overtake her in a second. But it wasn't worth Kate or Jack getting hurt for his stupid ideas. Beside, there were probably cameras.

"Tough break," Sawyer said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"What?" asked the girl.

"Tough break at this job. What, look in the wrong newspaper, sweetheart?"

She looked confusedly at him and then back at the door as though avoiding the question.

"Sawyer, right?" asked the girl, seemingly interested. Sawyer nodded and she looked away. "Yeah I've heard about you."

"Heard about me? From what, Entertainment Tonight?" snapped Sawyer. He already knew that the Others knew a lot about them but wasn't sure how much.

"You're a jackass," she said simply. "Trust me, I've heard."

"Well trust me, you people think you know everything about us from sending cowardly spies in to trick us. Well, Napoleon, things aren't as they seem," Sawyer was disgusted and turned away. "You don't know what we're capable of."

"Obviously not of realizing a trap when it's right in front of you," she hissed. She was quiet for a moment and then spoke again. "Is Claire okay?"

"Claire?" Sawyer was confused. How did this girl know Claire? "Uh…yeah I guess."

"So she had the baby?" suddenly this girl was extremely curious, lowering the gun and looking up at Sawyer with wide eyes. He realized she couldn't be any older than sixteen. "Was it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy," he was puzzled. "But how did you…"

Suddenly Sawyer realized. Claire had been taken by them, by Ethan. She had probably been brought here or somewhere else and this girl must have seen her.

"I helped her get out," said the girl. She looked suddenly satisfied. "I'm glad she's okay."

"Why would you help her?" asked Sawyer bluntly. "Aren't you…"

"One of them?" she looked away suddenly. "I suppose not."

"You got a name?" Sawyer asked. She looked at him and he shrugged. "Hey, you know mine."

"Alex," she said quickly, gripping the gun a little tighter. "My name is Alex."

Jack was sat down at a long metal table where he put his hands on the cool surface. A small lamp was on the wall and barely lit the room. Tom paced for a moment before turning to Jack.

"What kind of doctor are you?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"A neurosurgeon," Jack said simply. His heart was pounding as he sat here.

"Have you ever amputated a limb?"

Jack was shocked at the question and remembered how he was about to cut off Boone's leg when Boone asked him not to. Jack's heart jarred at the thought and he tried to push it away.

"No. I do brain surgery, not amputations," replied Jack, looking hard at the man in the khaki clothes before him as though staring him down.

"But if you had to, could you without killing a person?"

"What does this have…"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!" shouted Tom, causing Jack to jump.

"If I had the right tools and a sterile room, maybe," Jack said angrily. "But I can't guarantee anything."

"We have some sick people here, Jack," said Tom, pacing. Jack saw the man's bare feet and wondered why they were even pretending. "And our last doctor was killed."

Jack wasn't about to ask how.

"We need you to do some things for us. If you cooperate, things will be easy for you. If you make it difficult, well, let's say it won't be only you who suffers," Tom leaned on his hands on the table and leaned towards Jack. "Understand?"

"You want me to be a doctor for your people?" Jack demanded.

"No, I want you to do what we ask you to do with no questions asked," Tom straightened and crossed his arms. "All our attempts, even with our doctors have failed because they aren't skilled enough."

"Who are these procedures done on?"

Tom just laughed and shook his head.

"That's really none of your business," smirking, he came around the table. "Here's your proposition. You do what we ask, we let her live. You don't, we kill her and let you watch her die. Deal?"

Jack was still I shock as Tom wrenched him from the seat, a gun pointed in his side and pushed him towards the door. When it opened, Sawyer and the girl looked at Jack as he came out into the hall.

"Now you," Tom said, holding the door open for Sawyer.

Kate looked up, her neck aching. She had sat against the wall for so long that she'd fallen asleep with her arms on her knees and her head down. Now she looked around the still dark room and felt dread sink deeper into her stomach.

Standing up, she felt her stiff back creak as she walked stiffly to the door. Looking through the tiny window, she could see nothing but blurred light. She wondered where Jack and Sawyer were, and whether they were okay.

Suddenly there was a click of the door. Automatically Kate backed up against the opposite wall. For a moment she was sure someone was coming in to get her but surprisingly, it was Jack and Sawyer being shoved back inside, the door slammed behind them.

"Thank god," she breathed, capturing Sawyer first in an enormous hug. "I thought you weren't coming back."

"We did," Sawyer said, hugging her back and letting go of her so she could go to Jack. He hugged her but numbly, and his eyes were far off. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Where have you guys been?" she asked desperately.

Jack and Sawyer exchanged a look. After the questioning, both had endured a long session of health exams that neither wanted to relive. Sawyer had cut his short when he grasped the nurse by the throat and had to be hit until he let go of her. It was for reasons that he was not going to tell Kate.

"They haven't come back for you?" Jack asked curiously.

"No," she looked almost frantic. "I thought maybe they would but they never did."

"Don't get jealous," Sawyer laughed. "It's nothing special."

Jack looked at her, not believing that she was only there as leverage for him. Sawyer hadn't told Jack what Tom had said to him in the room, but Jack knew why he himself was there. He was a doctor and these people probably didn't have anything above a high school education. People were probably dying during experiments and they needed someone to keep them alive.

"What did he say to you?" Kate asked when Jack told her they had been questioned. "What did he ask?"

"What kind of doctor I am. They need me for their experiments, because people keep dying," Jack crossed his arms and leaned heavily against the wall.

"Sawyer?" Kate looked at him.

Sawyer looked at her sadly and shrugged.

"I don't know. He just said if I didn't behave he'd kill you two," Sawyer shrugged. "Basically it."

"Same here," Jack mumbled. But Tom had been specific and Jack knew Sawyer had no idea exactly what he meant.

"What now?" Kate asked after several moments of silence.

"We wait," Sawyer slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

"CHARLIE!"

Sayid had struck something with his makeshift shovel. Charlie came scrambling over the dirt to where Sayid was, and looking down they saw a sliver of medal below the dirt.

"Maybe it's the door!" Charlie exclaimed.

Sayid began uncovering it, using his hands to scoop the dirt out. Charlie helped, moving the sides of dirt away. As they uncovered it, it was obvious it was the door into the hatch, but as they uncovered it they realized it had been unhinged and was singed around the corners.

"How?" asked Charlie breathlessly as Sayid brushed away the last bits of dirt on the large metal door. "What could blast it out?"

"It wasn't blasted out," Sayid said. "It was pulled in. Look at the corners, they're bent. Almost like it was sucked inside the doorframe and then blasted out."

"Do you think Eko and John are still alive?" Charlie asked worriedly. He looked terrified as he stared at Sayid, covered in dirt.

"We need to keep digging," Sayid avoided the question. "Come on."

Sayid wasn't about to explain to Charlie that whatever had bent a two inch thick metal door was probably much stronger than anything they had on this island and that the kind of force to do that, could have crushed the hatch into itself. No, he would tell him that later.


	3. Chapter 3: The Messenger

(Author's Note: Thank you everyone for such nice reviews. Really, I'm like a little kid when I read them. I get so excited to write more for you guys and I'm like ooh ooh! Thanks again.

And thanks for pointing out the neurosurgeon thing lol. I'm a moron.)

**Chapter 3: The Messenger**

Kate awoke abruptly. She had fallen asleep beside Jack, whose eyes were closed although she didn't think he was asleep. They were sitting up against the wall, and opposite them was Sawyer against the other wall, looking at the door.

"Did you hear that?" whispered Sawyer, his eyes not leaving the door.

Not remembering what had awoken her, Kate shook her head.

"They're coming back."

For the first time in a long time, Kate heard fear in Sawyer's voice. His eyes were wide as he stared at the small bit of light coming in through the cracks along the side of the door.

There was the sound of the lock clicking and Jack was suddenly up, pulling Kate up and pulling her over towards Sawyer. Sawyer felt like a chicken corner by a dog in a coop. They gathered together in the corner, waiting.

The door swung open and Tom came strolling in, still wearing his khaki clothes. He had a club in his hand and gave them a cruel smile.

"You two, come on," Tom pointed at Jack and Kate.

"Where are we going?" Jack demanded, gripping Kate's arm very tightly.

"We're going for a little walk. Now come on," Tom came closer to them and Kate retracted beside Sawyer, who put a hand on her back. "Don't make me use force."

"Need help?" shouted a voice from the door.

"Yes," Tom called back, gripping the club tighter.

From the doorway came another man who was slightly larger and built like a building. His arms were huge. Behind him stood the young girl only Sawyer knew as Alex, standing nervously by the door holding a gun.

"The doctor," said Tom simply to the larger man.

He came forward and took Jack's arm. Jack pulled away and the man shoved Kate out of the way to get to Jack. Kate fell hard into Sawyer who caught her. He then moved aside from Kate and belted the large man right in the mouth.

For a moment Kate thought Sawyer had managed to knock this hulk of a man out. But the man simply got up and walked over to Sawyer, returning the favor much more brutally, by hitting him in the crotch.

"STOP!" Kate screamed as the man continued to pummel Sawyer. She went to go forward and Jack grabbed her.

"Let's go!" shouted Tom, grabbing Jack's arm. He pulled him closer and hissed, "Remember our agreement."

"There was no agreement," Jack snapped, pulling his arm away, but he didn't run or fight.

"Sawyer!" Kate shouted, but Jack had turned and grabbed her, pulling her along. "Jack! Stop, no he'll kill him!"

"No he won't," Tom said calmly, strolling down the hallway. "But he won't forget to be courteous anymore."

"Sayid! Come here!" Charlie shouted, his dirty face popping up over the mound. "I found a way in!"

Sayid jumped out of the hole he was digging through the debris and ran to Charlie, who had been digging at a slant. At the bottom of his hole was a large opening, inside of which was mostly dirt. But Sayid got down and looked closer inside, and he could see light and what was definitely the inside of the hatch.

"We need to get in there," Charlie said desperately. "I'm smaller, I'll go."

"No. We don't know the condition of the hatch. It's possible it could collapse once you get inside," Sayid pressed, leaning back on his haunches. "We need to secure it."

"We don't have time! What if Locke and Eko are hurt?" demanded Charlie, his eyes wide.

Sayid looked at Charlie. He knew that Locke and Charlie butted heads, but that Charlie was good friends with Eko now because of their time building the church together. Charlie had done some foolish things on this island, like steal Aaron from Claire and start fires, but Sayid could tell he had a good heart and that was what mattered to Sayid.

"Okay, but let's make this bigger so we can see better," Sayid got down and helped Charlie to widen the hole. Inside was a long passage of dirt before the smaller opening that seemed to lead into the main area of the hatch.

"Okay," Charlie panted. "I can fit now."

"Here," Sayid got up and went over to a pile of tools they had gathered from the other survivors. He picked up a flashlight and hurried back. "Use this. When you're going through try not to bump the sides."

"Whoa," for a moment Charlie looked dizzy.

"What is it?"

"Déjà vu, mate," Charlie smiled a bit. "Of when Jack was trapped in that cave in."

"You saved his life," Sayid encouraged. "Now you're about to save Locke and Eko's."

"Aren't I the little hero of the island," said Charlie, giving Sayid a smile.

Carefully, Charlie got on his stomach. He inched towards the hole and with one last glance towards Sayid, entered the hole.

(off the island, Penny's house)

"Richard!" Penny shouted, hurrying through the kitchen. "Richard!"

"Yes, darling?" a handsome gentlemen came hurrying down the stairs in his bathrobe.

"I'm leaving. You'll watch Georgia for me?" she asked, going over to the playpen and kissing a little girl of only two and a half on the head.

"Yes, dear, but where are you going?" Richard came down the stairs and into the hall as Penny rushed around, grabbing things and getting ready to leave.

"An old friend called last night. I need to meet them in London," she finally found her keys and stuffed them in her bag. "I'll be back by dinner."

"But what about the tennis match? We were supposed to go with your father," Richard picked up the baby and held her. "I suppose we'll postpone?"

"I don't know," Penny looked up at her husband looking disheveled and panicked. In her hand was a picture that she clutched tightly. "I'm sorry, dear, I must go."

She kissed her husband and then the baby again before hurrying to the door. Once outside she pulled out her cellphone and began dialing.

"Yes, Arthur? I want the exact coordinates of that magnetic field you picked up," she said as she opened the car door. "Yes, I'm going to the airport. I'm meeting someone who will take me to your headquarters in Paris. Okay, good. Get right on that."

Starting the car, Penny put her bag on the seat beside her and looked at the picture she had ripped out of the frame this morning. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked at it. Was it possible? Was it possible they had found him after all these years? For a moment she remembered the day it had been reported he was lost at sea, and how much she hated her father for even having that stupid race that he wanted to win. But what was worse was knowing that her father was involved in some kind of organization called Dharma, and that there was the slightest chance in hell that he had gotten Desmond caught up in it.

Pulling out of the driveway she changed into drive and sped down the block just as her phone rang again.

(end)

"Where are we going?" Kate asked bravely, gripping Jack's arm tightly.

"Shut up and walk," snapped the larger man standing beside Tom as they walked. Jack caught glimpses of Alex between the two men. "What are you looking at?"

You're the size of a mountain, it's not hard to miss you, Jack mentally said. He almost laughed at his sarcastic remark but then was scared at the fact that he was joking around at a time like this. He supposed he was going a little crazy.

"Okay, take her in there," Tom ordered.

The man grabbed Kate's arms and she ripped out of them, grabbing Jack tightly around the neck. She was going to die, in her heart she was terrified and knew this was happening. She wanted Jack so badly she could have kissed him right there. Never before had she felt so terrified or wanted someone so badly.

"Kate, just go," Jack pleaded, hugging her back and not trying to push her off. Very gently he peeled her arms from his neck and bent, kissing her cheek. "I promise nothing is going to happen."

"How do you know?" she whispered, trembling with fear.

"I promise. And I never break a promise," he said with strong eyes.

She didn't nod or even agree. The large man gripped her arms tightly and started pulling her back into the room with an open door. Inside Jack saw many shelves. He could see the terror in Kate's face and wanted so badly to kiss her, to hold her, or to even tell her it was okay and that she would stay alive as long as he behaved.

Slowly the door closed and Jack was left staring at it.

"If you tell her what we discussed, they'll both die," Tom breathed beside Jack, his club poking Jack in the ribs. "Now go, in there."

Turning around Jack was lead into the room opposite where Kate had gone. His last glimpse of the hallway saw Alex turning around and heading the opposite way.

Sawyer paced restlessly. They had been taken, but why not him? He wondered if they would kill them. What was the point if they could have just shot them in the jungle? It'd raise fear from the survivors and just end it quicker. Maybe these people enjoyed torturing them, making them sit in this horrible room until they were dealt with.

Wincing, he put a hand to his swollen cheek. The man had only stopped when Sawyer was almost passed out. After many kicks to the ribs, if Sawyer's rib had been cracked before it was now completely broken. It hurt to even breathe as he walked back and forth trying to think of something else other than the pain.

There were footsteps and once again Sawyer froze. He listened stiffly and recognized that they were lighter and quicker than those of Tom or that huge brute that had hurt him so badly. Carefully the lock was clicked and the door swung open.

Alex rushed in and shut the door. In her arm was a small blue bag. She walked over to Sawyer without a word and bent, opening the bag and taking out what looked like a towel of ice.

"For your cheek," she said quietly, holding it up to put it on his face. He grabbed it away from her and put it there himself. "Are you okay?"

"I had the crap kicked out of me by the green giant, how do you think I am?" Sawyer snapped, leaning against the wall then wincing at his ribs. Alex noticed.

"You can't act like you're hurt," she whispered, her eyes flicking to the door. "If you do they'll just hurt you more. They want to keep you weak because they know you're vulnerable."

"Why am I here? I know they want Jack because he's a doctor but why Kate, why me?" he demanded, not speaking too harshly because it hurt.

"Kate is here as leverage for Jack," she said, her pale face glowing in the darkness of the room. "They told Jack if he does anything, Kate will die."

"What about me? Why am I here?" Sawyer almost was pleading.

"I don't know," answered Alex honestly, looking heartbroken that she couldn't answer his question. "I really don't. All I heard was that they know you're tough so they need to keep you weak. They probably won't feed you for a while either."

"Do you know anything about what's going on back on the other side of the island?" Sawyer found himself suddenly worried about everyone else. "Did Hurley get back?"

"I think he did. We had someone follow him to make sure he got back but we're not certain because we couldn't go too far. Something happened, though because your bunker isn't on our radar anymore," she said confusedly.

"Bunker? The hatch?"

"Is that what you call it?" she asked.

"Yeah. What do you mean not on the radar? It's a freaking underground lair!"

"It's gone," she said softly. "I think it was destroyed."

"HOW?" Sawyer burst and then panted with pain and leaned his head back. "I hope no one was inside."

"You care?'

Slowly Sawyer looked down at her.

"Yes," he said angrily, shoving the ice into her hands. "I do."

Alex took this hint and bent, putting the ice in the bag and standing. She gave Sawyer one last look as she turned, her hand on the doorknob.

"You know when someone's nice to you, you should thank them. I could have let him kill you," she said, almost painfully.

"I don't need your help. They'll kill me anyway."

"No they won't," she said positively. "They have other plans for you."

She opened the door and went to step out and Sawyer called out.

"Hey!"

She stopped, looking back.

"Thank you," he grunted.

She nodded and just closed the door.

Sayid watched as Charlie wiggled his way into the hole. His feet were just disappearing when there was a snapping of twigs and someone came crashing out onto the path, falling to their knees.

"HURLEY?" Sayid stared at Hurley who was kneeling, panting heavily, his face pale. He was drenched in sweat and had a look of complete and utter horror on his face.

"Jack, Kate, Sawyer," Hurley panted and he looked near to passing out. Sayid jumped up, forgetting Charlie for a moment, and ran to the man kneeling on the path. Sayid bent in front of him. "Taken."

"Taken? Where is Michael?" Sayid demanded, holding Hurley's shoulders but Hurley's eyes were spinning in his head. He had run the entire way, knowing they were behind him.

"GONE!" Hurley burst in a gust of air. "ALL GONE!"

"Where are they?" shouted Sayid, his fear rising.

"Jack, Kate, and Sawyer," Hurley finally said, catching his breath and looking weakly up at Sayid, "were taken by _the Others_."

Sayid just stared at Hurley and just as he was about to ask him to repeat it, Charlie's muffled cry came from the hole.

"SAYID!"


	4. Chapter 4: Hope

so sorry for the wait. family issues lol./

"Charlie!"

Sayid dove over the mound of dirt and into the small hole they'd dug. He got down on his knees and looked in but there was nothing in the hole.

"Charlie?" he repeated.

"I'm in!" Charlie's head popped into view, obstructing the light. "The hallway is intact!"

"Good! Be careful, the foundation may not be stable!" Sayid called.

Charlie stood from his stooping position and looked around. Most of this hallway was okay except for where he'd crawled through, which seemed like the wall had buckled in, spilling earth as high as the ceiling. Beyond it was one half of the door to the outside, which lay on the ground. Where it had been was a large mound of rock and sedimentary, as though it had been ready to fall into place, blocking the gap where the doors should have been. This whole end of the hallway seemed as though it were a weakness and had simply collapsed in.

Turning around, Charlie faced the end of the hallway where the main living room was. He walked down it carefully. It was very dark but a strange glow was coming from inside the living room. He stepped into the doorway where there were many yellow lights, not visible when they weren't on, lighting in the room in an eerie glow.

But this main room was trashed. Everything that had been on the counter had flown to the wall beside Charlie. Forks stood straight out of the wall, piercing it almost to their hilts. Pots, pans, and all kinds of utensils seemed to have flown out of their drawers. The ping pong table had slid halfway and then broken, and lay cracked on the floor. The couches were the same, but the kitchen cabinets were hanging off and whatever wasn't attached firmly to the wall was lying on the floor.

"Locke?" Charlie called. "Eko?"

There was no answer.

Jack was pushed into a room that was almost identical to some of the operating rooms he had operated in back at home. It had a long clean silver table, a large lamp above with many different lights on it, and many trays with different instruments. The floor was glistening as though it had just been cleaned.

"Is this a sterile room?" Jack asked.

"No," said Tom. "Go in there."

He pointed at a door and Jack went through it into a smaller room with many shelves stacked with different types of clothing and many different accessories. It was almost like a theater's stock room, with fake bears, fake chest hair, pencils for makeup, face paint, racks of clothes, and all kinds of different props.

"What am I going to be doing?" Jack asked, looking around.

"A liver transplant," whispered Tom, looking over his shoulder into the operating room and shutting the door.

"What?" Jack turned sharply. "I can't, I'd need more than one…"

"You'll have help. You just tell them what to do," said Tom, grinning evilly. "Put these on."

He handed Jack a pair of cheaply made scrubs that looked more like a Halloween costume. He slid them on and left his clothes in a pile, feeling very unsure. All he could think of was Kate and how if he didn't do this, she'd die.

"You will not ask questions. You will do this," Tom said fiercely, standing in front of the door with his club. "Understood?"

"What happened to all the other doctors?" Jack asked, his eyes narrowing.

"They weren't good enough," snapped Tom. "Consider yourself promoted. Put your mask on."

Jack put the fake surgical mask over his face, wondering just how badly infected this patient would get once this botched surgery was done. Jack had never done this surgery before, because it wasn't his specialty. He'd seen it done, knew the steps, but could easily cut the wrong vein and end it all in a huge bloody mess.

"If this patient dies it wont be my fault," Jack hissed to Tom, who jutted him hard in the ribs as he opened the door.

They entered the operating room, which was now filled with people including someone lying asleep on the table. It was a middle-aged man, no older than Locke. Jack had a small pinprick of desperation, remembering John Locke being on the other side of the island, not knowing what was happening.

This man had no intubation, no anesthesia, and the people standing around were in the same scrubs as Jack. There were three female nurses with masks over their face and three larger men behind them, there to make sure everything went smoothly.

Jack walked nervously over to the table. He looked down at the sheet-covered man just as the man's eyes popped open.

"He's awake!" Jack shouted, looking back at Tom.

"Nurse," Tom said brusquely, the only man in the room without scrubs on. "Will you fix that?"

A nurse came over who was wearing a baseball cap low over her eyes. She reached out and injected the man with something that made him squirm for a moment then go still. For a brief moment Jack froze, recognizing those hands, knowing the smell of her. His eyes went to hers and he knew it was Kate.

But he kept his mouth shut as she drew her eyes away and was pulled back by the large man behind her. She held the empty syringe carefully and dropped it on a nearby table.

"Okay, proceed," Tom said quietly.

"May the Lord help you," Jack whispered to the man as he reached for a scalpel.

Sawyer sat up painfully. He had been sitting on this hard floor now for five hours. Alex had not returned and he grew more and more envious of the fact that she had access to ice. His sides ached terribly and even though he knew he was no doctor, he was hurt bad.

After what felt like an eternity, the door was opened and Kate was shoved in. She was wearing her regular clothes again and was sobbing hysterically as she hit the floor and the door was shut again.

"Freckles?" Sawyer strained to get up but couldn't move. "Freckles, you okay?"

"Yeah," she gasped, wiping her face quickly. "I'm okay."

"And the doc?" Sawyer suddenly was terrified. If Jack died and left them, he wasn't sure what he'd do. He hated to admit it but that dumb surgeon was their only hope.

"He's okay," she got to her feet and was able to compose herself. "He just had to…Oh my god! Are you alright?"

She had seen the state of him and rushed over. His face was cut and bruised, his eye purple and swollen almost to shut. His face was a pasty white and he held his sides painfully.

"Yeah," Sawyer waved her away as she examined his face. "I'm great. But what happened?"

"They made Jack operate," she said solemnly, her eyes looking distant. "It went okay until the end and the blood was everywhere…it…"

Kate looked very sick all of a sudden and sat back closing her eyes. She tried to stop her head from spinning, tried to get the image of the blood, practically flowing out over Jack's arms as he tried desperately to stop it. She had been pulled from the room just as Jack was about getting it under control.

"Why do they want us?" Kate asked quietly, her tears ceasing but her voice shaking. "I don't understand."

"I'd answer it if I could, freckles," he said weakly, sighing.

"Jack should look at you when he gets back. You don't look good," she said, looking closely at his pale face.

"I'm fine…"

Sawyer was cut off when the doors opened and Jack came stumbling in, looking lost. The door slammed and Jack looked at them. He was still in his scrubs and had blood all over his arms and hands. His face was emotionless as he moved over towards Kate and Sawyer and simply sat down beside Sawyer against the wall, his scarlet hands glistening in the small bit of light coming from the cracks in the door.

"Jack?" Kate whispered tentatively.

"We have to get out of here," Jack said, his eyes staring far off.

(off the island. A busy office in London)

"What do we have?"

Penny came bustling into the large office where three men sat around a computer screen, all looking confused. They all wore business suits but their ties had been loosened and they looked more relaxed.

"The coordinates don't make much sense," said the man in the middle who was known as Robert. He had thinning brown hair that was obviously died and barely covered his large shiny bald spot on the top of his head with a badly done comb over. He was heavy set and seemed to be busting out of his shirt. "There's nothing there."

"Maybe it can't be seen easily," she came around the desk and all the men stepped back as she went to look at the screen. She smelled heavily of airplane and perfume, and all the men took in her slim appearance in a business skirt and top. "Is this satellite?"

"The best we have," said a thinner, red headed man with more hair than seemed necessary for a man of his age. Obvious signs of sleep deprivation aged his face and he appeared ten years older than he was. "If it's not on there it doesn't exist."

"It does if they picked up a signal!" she snapped, her anger surprising them all into backing up more. "What else could it be?"

"A solar flare?" suggested the last man, who was younger than the other two but sporting a particularly large mole on his face that would effect his love life for many years. "Or even a mistake in calculations."

"It isn't a mistake!" Penny snapped, turning around and marching to where she'd put down her briefcase. She ripped out a folder and brought it to the table, pushing aside the laptop and spreading out many forms with a lot of numbers and coordinates. "A large amount of electromagnetic energy was reported a little while ago in the same location but died too fast. They didn't get it in time. This is the same spot. What are the chances a solar flare or a mistake happened in the same place?"

None of the men answered her and she could feel the anger and desperation rising in her chest. She had invested a lot of money into this, money that she had to lie about. She lied about forming a new charity for children effected by radiation in nuclear armed countries, and had to tell her husband she was putting more into it than expected. They weren't going broke but this was a large portion of her income to be pouring into monitoring and watching for this specific event just to have it brushed off as a mistake.

"You haven't acted on any of them yet," she said, putting her hands on her slim hips. The red headed man looked very intimidated. "Act on it."

"But surely you can't be serious," said Robert, shaking his head as he closed the laptop. "That's triple what this assignment costs now."

"Do it," she snapped. "And any information I want brought to me."

"The only way we could check it out would be to go there," said the younger man, whose face had become flushed. He avoided her eyes carefully. "We'd send an expedition to check the surrounding waters for any source of the energy…"

"Good, I'm on board," she began putting her papers back in a folder.

"But ma'am, this is a dangerous mission. It's going to take many days to establish and get a crew together. We possibly may need a permit to do any radar testing…"

"Can you have a ship by Thursday?" Penny snapped, her eyes flashing at the three men in business suits, who all believed she was crazy.

"Yes ma'am," said Robert, glancing at his calendar to see it was only Tuesday.

"Okay. I'm going home until I get your call and I'll fly to wherever we launch from," she put her briefcase under her arm, feeling the lump form in her throat. She turned away from them and kept her voice as steady as she could as she reached the door. "Good day, gentlemen."

As she reached the elevator the tears were spilling over her eyes. She was thankful that she had the elevator to herself as the doors closed. Looking in the reflection of the doors, she wiped her eyes, her makeup smearing. This was it, she would find Desmond. She thought of her daughter and husband, of this life she had been forced into. In her mind she imagined a beautiful reunion as she rescued Desmond from some desolate island no bigger than a boat, where he had survived heartily on coconuts and fish. She would rescue him, take him home, and then they could start their life together.

The elevator doors opened and she stepped out, letting the rush of air cool the tears and refresh her. She went to the street to hail a cab and in her heart she had hope.

(end)

"Charlie!"

"I'm okay!" Charlie shouted back to Sayid, slightly annoyed.

He went a few feet forward. Ahead he could see the computer room. All the walls in the hall to it were buckling, water seeping through the cracks. Burst pipes lay dripping, hanging from the ceiling. Dirt and mud had gathered on the floor and was ankle deep as he sloshed through it.

The computer room was a disaster area. The computer was smashed, the timer above him crunched into nothing. The magnet had seemed especially strong in here because even the rolling chair had glued itself to the wall, bending in half. The desk was swept clean and only because it was bolted to the floor did it remain although the ground around each leg was bent upward from the pull. The computer all around was demolished, smashed with bits of glass and fragments of computer parts littering the ground.

"Locke! Eko?" Charlie shouted again. Looking around he could see no sign of anyone. Over to the left there was a square hole in the ground, with a twisted and bent floor tile that was partially raised. Charlie went over and lifted it but could only see blackness and dust below.

There was movement to his left and he jumped. Rising to his feet he peered into the bathroom. Slowly he approached, his soaked shoes squeaking on the ground. The door to the bathroom sat partially opened. He pushed it all the way and saw nothing. But the shower door was closed.

Walking across the bathroom, Charlie's heart pumped in his chest. He could hear Sayid calling for more reassurance and wasn't going to answer, unsure he could with the knot in his chest. He was sure he'd open the door and find John and Eko's bodys twisted and destroyed. He was sure he'd find something horrible and gruesome there.

Reaching out, he put a hand on the handle and slid the door open.


	5. Chapter 5: True Lies

Charlie's eyes widened.

Lying on the marble floor of the shower, covered in dust and bits of broken tile were Locke and Eko. Both were unconscious, and Locke had a particularly nasty gash on his bald head. Eko lay facedown and Charlie was unsure if he was breathing.

Turning around Charlie bolted from the bathroom and skidded through the computer room, stumbling on the debris on the floor. He leapt over the ping pong table and sprinted into the hallway, hurrying to the hole and putting his head inside.

"Sayid! I found them!" Charlie bellowed as Sayid's face appeared on the other side. "They're hurt!"

"We need to make this hole bigger," Sayid said, turning around. Hurley was standing behind him, looking worried. "I need help."

Hurley looked at Sayid like he was crazy.

"Charlie!" Sayid shouted in

Charlie looked back into the hole.

"Are thye alive?"

"I don't know," Charlie looked back towards the bathroom with shivers along his spine.

"Find out and come back."

Sayid said this simply as though Charlie were checking the weather out the window. Shaking his head Charlie hurried back down the hallway and through the computer room. Coming back to the bathroom he stepped inside and went to the shower.

Bending down he shook Locke's shoulder. For a moment Locke didn't respond, then he let out a low groan.

"John," Charlie hissed, enormous relief flooding his chest. "Are you okay?"

Slowly John looked up. Bits of the ceiling fell from him as he moved to turn over and sit up. But he found he had trouble.

"Does anything feel broken?" Charlie asked automatically, not really sure of what else to do. His eyes kept going to Eko who still wasn't moving.

"No," Locke suddenly looked very panicked. He had gripped one leg and then the other. He looked up at Charlie with wide eyes. "No."

Without saying anything, John seized a nearby piece of broken marble and smashed it into his leg, causing blood to pour from it. But John hadn't even flinched. His eyes seemed to dim and the breath left him.

"What did you bloody do that for?" Charlie demanded.

"No," was all Locke could say.

"Eko," extremely scared and weirded out by John, Charlie leaned over and shook Eko's enormous arm. The large man didn't move. Charlie got to his knees, the tile crunching under his knees and was able to heave Eko over.

Eko stared with blank eyes towards the ceiling. He was dead.

"We have to get out of here," Charlie said, his stomach twisting into tight knots. He felt sick, almost like he could faint. But he had to help John out. "Come on, can you stand?"

"No," John shook his head, his eyes far off.

"Well maybe because you stabbed yourself," snapped Charlie, Eko's death washing over him like a cold wave. He suddenly was bitter towards John. "Can you stand or not?"

"No," John said one more time, frustrating Charlie. "I can't."

"Why?" Charlie was having a difficult time avoiding Eko's wide-open eyes.

"Because I'm paralyzed," John's voice shook in his throat. "I'm paralyzed again."

……….

(off the island, Penny's home)

Penny hadn't been home ten minutes from the market when the phone in her kitchen rang. She had her daughter in her arms as she rushed through the kitchen door and snatched up the phone on the third ring.

"Hello?" she panted, bouncing the baby on her hip.

"Miss Widmore?" the voice on the other line said, calling her by her maiden name. "We have some news."

Her heart fluttered as she listened closely, putting the baby in her high chair.

"We can have a boat ready by this afternoon but our trip will not be the only one it's taking. The only way we could get clearance to do this is if we join a zoology mission. They're researching something with whales, but our destination is on their way. And if we find what we're looking for, we'll cut the whole thing short," said the voice she now recognized as Robert's. "How does that sound?"

"Brilliant," she smiled, knowing he had probably just received the memo about a raise she'd stuck in. "What time do I need to be in London?"

"We can leave from your local port, Smithville. If that is more convenient," said Robert, and Penny could almost see him counting all the zeros on the check

"Sounds fine," she handed her daughter a bottle and turned around to grab a pen and paper. "And what is the dock number?"

"Twenty-three," said Robert "The boat number is forty-two. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

After getting all the information, Penny quickly booked another flight out. As she did she watched her daughter, Georgia, staring at her from her chair. The little girl hadn't even drank the bottle, just sat it down and watched her mother go about her things.

When Penny was done she went over to the baby and picked her up, hugging her tightly. How could she explain it in terms the child would understand?

"Mommy has to go away," whispered Penny, looking into the sad baby's face. "I'll be back soon."

"Why?" asked Georgia, which had been her new game of late. She would repeat it indefinitely, not really making sense.

"Because Mommy lost a friend and needs to find him again," she explained, wishing the child could understand more. "Will you be good for Daddy?"

The little girl nodded her head, sucking her thumb. Penny kissed her head and carried the little girl with her as she headed upstairs to pack

At the top of the stairs she stopped. The front door opened and Richard came bustling in, briefcase in hand.

"I'm up here," Penny called down.

She felt nervous as she sat Georgia down on the rug and took out a suitcase. She had lied about where she was putting the money, and about where she'd gone when she'd flown to London. Richard knew about Desmond, and how she had dated him and loved him. He also knew that Desmond hadn't returned from his race around the world. But she hadn't told him that she was looking for him, and sincerely believed her own father had taken part in his disappearance

Richard came into the bedroom and saw Penny putting folded clothes into a suitcase.

"Honey?" he said worriedly. She knew he probably thought she was leaving him.

"I have to go away for a bit," she said quickly, avoiding his eyes as she put more clothes in, barely paying attention.

"Where to?" Richard picked up Georgia and held her, looking extremely sad.

Penny didn't answer him right away, preferring to grab some of the things from her end table and stuff them in a different bag. She could feel his eyes on her as she packed and suddenly couldn't hold back the tears any longer.

"Penny," Richard spoke softly, his daughter resting her head on his shoulder. "Are you leaving me, darling?"

Shaking her head as tears fell, Penny walked over to her husband and hugged him. She loved the man, loved him with all her heart. She had his child, and was his wife. But she knew Desmond could very well be in that spot, and he was the one who should have been there.

"I have to do something," she wiped her tears and stepped back from him. "I promise I'll be back shortly."

"And you're not…seeing anyone else?" he asked simply, his accent always making him sound proper.

"No," she smiled. "No, honey. I'm not."

She returned to packing and Richard brought Georgia into her room and put her in her crib before returning and watching Penny finish packing.

"How long will you be gone?" he asked as she finally zippered the bag.

"Not long. Maybe a week," she came over to him and kissed him hard. "I love you."

"Love you too, dear," he said as she hurried from the room.

Later as she sat in the car on the way to the dock, she removed her wedding ring from her finger and placed it in the glove compartment of her car.

(END)

"What?"

Kate looked at Jack.

"We need to leave," he turned to look at her. "I just killed a man."

"You did surgery…" Sawyer began.

"No, I killed him. I didn't have the proper tools, I did the best I could but he died. I killed him," Jack looked down at his bloody hands. "I…"

"No you didn't," Kate insisted, sitting up and coming towards him. "Jack, you didn't."

"I'm all for getting out, though," said Sawyer weakly, wincing at his side.

"Do your ribs hurt?" Jack asked, noticing Sawyer clutching his side. Sawyer nodded and closed his eyes, sighing with the pain. "Can I take a look?"

Usually Sawyer would have had a wise remark for Jack, or even said to buzz off. But Sawyer simply obliged, raising his shirt to show his purpling side.

"I think he broke your ribs," Jack said, gently pressing Sawyer's side. He cried out in pain and inched away. "Try not to move."

"Does breathing count?" he snapped.

"Jack," Kate whispered.

He turned to her and she looked terrified. He came over to her and they both sat against the wall opposite Sawyer. He could see something was wrong, other than their current situation. She seemed to be holding her arm.

"What is it?" he asked.

"They gave me something," she said softly, her eyes a bit far off.

"What?" he didn't understand.

She lifted her hand and Jack saw a small puncture wound on her arm from a rather large needle.

"They gave it to me after they pulled me from the room. I don't feel anything yet but…" she looked at Jack with terrified eyes. "What was it?"

"It could have been a sedative that didn't effect you," he tenderly touched her arm and she looked up at him, their faces closed. "Are you tired?"

"No," she shook her head but her eyes were focused on Jack.

"If you feel weird, tell me," he insisted. "I need to make sure Sawyer is okay."

Jack got back up but not to check on Sawyer. Sitting so close to Kate had been slightly nerve wracking. He didn't know why, possibly because it was his fault she was here. He went back to Sawyer and sat beside him. Kate remained on the far side, looking down at her arm worriedly. Jack prayed whatever they'd given her wasn't dangerous.

"Doc," Sawyer hissed, looking over weakly.

"Yeah?" Jack said, not really listening.

"Do you think Mike and his kid got home?"

Looking over at Sawyer, Jack shrugged. Sawyer looked away. He hadn't expected Jack to answer but all he could think about was how Michael had murdered Ana and Libby, and now his reward was to go home. It was bugging Sawyer, more so than the excruciating pain in his side.

They all slept, or rather dozed. Jack barely closed his eyes but knew he had eventually dozed off. When he woke up it was considerably later. He had no perception of the time at all. It could have been three in the morning and he wouldn't have known.

Suddenly there was a click and the door opened. For a moment Jack froze. Kate had woken up and dashed to him. Sawyer remained asleep.

In the door came Alex, holding a tray. On it were three plates with food of which they couldn't distinguish. It all looked like gray mush.

"I ordered seafood," Sawyer mumbled as he looked at the plates blearily.

"I brought ice," whispered Alex, shutting the door behind her and walking over to them. She set the trays down and held the ice out to hand to Sawyer. When he didn't take it, she placed it beside his legs and turned to leave.

Sawyer swung his foot out and tripped her. With enormous strength for someone whose ribs were broken, he grabbed her and seized her throat.

"STOP!" Jack shouted, but Sawyer shoved him away.

"Get us out of here," Sawyer said with such pain Kate's eyes watered. She could see his teeth grinding in agony as he knelt, holding the young girl by the throat as he eyes bulged. No sound came from her throat and she was quickly purpling.

"Sawyer!" Kate started forward and stopped when the door burst open and Tom and three other men came in. The first one grabbed Kate, shoving her across the room towards the opposite corner. The second grabbed Jack, who had only been standing and watching, and pulled him back

Sawyer let go of Alex and she crumpled, coughing and gagging on the ground. Tom went to her and yanked her up by her shirt, causing her to waver against him and then to the wall. He glanced from Alex to Sawyer with disgust.

"She's no better than you three," snapped Tom, going over to Sawyer who remained on his knees, hunched in pain. "Keep your god damn hands to yourself."

With one swift kick he had sent Sawyer to the ground, reeling in pain. Jack expected Sawyer to pass out from it but instead he remained still, his eyes closed tightly, his hands in tight fists. For a moment Tom lingered and then he waved his hand and the two men released Kate and Jack.

Tom grasped Alex's arm and yanked her from the room, shutting the door.


	6. Chapter 6: Renewal and Departure

"You're not listening to me!" Hurley bellowed as he followed Sayid back to the beach.

"I can't right now, Hurley!" Sayid snapped, rushing through the trees, surprised Hurley could keep up in his exhausted state.

"But they've been kidnapped!"

"You're hallucinating," Sayid shouted over his shoulder, his initial instinct to believe Hurley. But how could the three of them be kidnapped? It was ridiculous. They were probably on their way back. Hurley had to have fallen behind.

"Sayid!"

But Sayid took off running, needing to get away from Hurley. Everything was too much. He needed to get help, find a bunch of people to help him dig out the hatch. The hole that Charlie had crawled through was slowly collapsing. It was already almost half the size it had been. He needed a lot of hands to help him widen it, to help dig it out so they could get Locke and Eko out, if they were alive.

"Scott!" Sayid shouted, coming up to a guy trying to put together a second part of his tent.

"It's Steve," snapped the man, not looking at Sayid. "Scott's dead."

"Sorry," Sayid hurried. "I need help. The hatch has collapsed, we need a lot of hands to dig it out."

"Were there people inside?" asked Steve, looking concerned.

"Yes. Go find as many people as you can to help."

But Steve looked hesitant.

"Where's Jack?" he asked, stepping away from his work. "How come they haven't come back yet?"

"They're on their way," Sayid had no time for this, he needed to find more recruits.

"Did they find that kid?"

"I don't know!" Sayid shouted angrily. Steve gave him a look that said 'you really think I'll help you now?' and Sayid sighed.

Forgetting Steve, Sayid ran down the beach and found Claire hurriedly walking with Aaron and a bag over her shoulder.

"Claire?"

"They've gone crazy!" she exclaimed, looking back. "They're going through Sawyer's stuff! Hurley said they're dead!"

Leaving Claire to hurry along the beach, Sayid took off towards Sawyer's tent. Several people were going through his bags. As much animosity was between them, Sayid knew Sawyer would flip a lid if he came back and his things were gone. It wasn't right.

"Stop!" Sayid came up to them "They're not dead!"

"Hurley said they were taken by the Others!" shrieked Sun, not ransacking Sawyer's tent but standing by and watching. "What happened?"

"They're on their way back," Sayid said.

Suddenly Sayid knew how Jack felt. In complete chaos, he was the only one who could take control. He knew Charlie was down in the hatch with the opening closing more and more with every second. He knew Locke and Eko were down there, hurt or even possibly dead. But what he didn't know was whether he was lying when he said Jack would return.

"Get away from his tent," Sayid ordered, suddenly taking charge. He went towards the tent and everyone scattered, holding things like sunscreen and bottles of aspirin in their hands. "Put it back!"

"Why should we?" asked one guy with a pair of pants in his hand.

"Because if you recall, Sawyer has a gun and if he comes back and finds you have taken his things, who knows what he'll do," Sayid said simply, not wanting to scare them but hoping they'd understand. "We all know what he is capable of."

They all exchanged worried glances. Jin had come over to see what was going on and was pulling Sun away, as she tried to stay. Her eyes were on Sayid, and he knew she could sense something wasn't right.

Slowly, they put everything back. Sayid knew the bags were much emptier now, people having stuffed certain items in their pockets. Sayid did his best to straight Sawyer's tent, realizing this was the same man he had stabbed in the arm. Perhaps Sawyer would pay him back someday.

"Wait!" Sayid said as everyone started to walk away. "I need help. The hatch has collapsed and I need hands to help dig it out."

There was an immediate hush and everyone hurried away even quicker. Perhaps it was because of that strange violet light they'd seen, or because Charlie had returned acting so strangely from the hatch. But now everyone seemed to regard the hatch as dangerous or possibly murderous.

Turning back, Sayid started down the beach. He had only gotten out of sight of Sawyer's tent when Sun appeared out of nowhere, pulling him inside her tent. Jin wasn't there.

"What's going on?" she demanded, her hand on her stomach. She looked pale and nervous. "Something isn't right."

"Nothing's wrong," Sayid insisted, going to duck out but she gripped his arm. Her fingers were like ice and had a viselike grip. He looked down at them and up at her face.

"Where are Jack and the others?" she asked desperately, peering over Sayid's shoulder, watching out for Jin. "What happened to them?"

"I don't…"

"Hurley says they've been taken. We went to see, you said the camp was deserted. But you never said what was in those doors," she whispered.

Suddenly something occurred to Sayid. He was staring into Sun's dark eyes, and her knowing seemed to bring him around.

"There was nothing," he said calmly. "A wall."

"It was fake?" she demanded. Her hand on his arm began to hurt. "What does that mean?"

"It means it was a show," Sayid's eyes were unfocused as it all fell into place in his mind. "It was for looks. They wanted us to go there, they tricked Michael. They made him believe they were hicks. They're not..."

"You're not making sense!" Sun was terrified and she had begun to shake.

"I need the boat. Tell Jin to get the boat ready. I need to go back," Sayid pulled his arm from her grip and stepped out of the tent. "And find Hurley!"

…………………………………………….

"He's bleeding," Jack said, bending over Sawyer. He had been okay, leaning against the wall and breathing heavily. Then his breathing had become extremely labored. Jack had laid him down on the cold ground and was listening to his chest. "It's possible he punctured his lung."

"English!" Kate spat, her fear turning into frustration. "Jack, what's going to happen?"

"He's going to bleed to death within twenty-four hours," Jack said firmly to her, his eyes looking straight through her.

"You have to do it then," she hissed, her eyes on Sawyer. Her hands kept brushing his hair from his eyes. Somehow, a strange spurt of jealousy raged inside Jack's chest like a sleeping dragon. He could feel it rumble for a moment and then fade.

"How? How do we know they'll let me?" he snapped. He didn't mean to be nasty, but the jealousy was making his hands shake.

"They have to. Just…"

But the door had opened and in came the same people as last time except this time Alex stayed near the door, a gun in her hands. Tom came over to Kate and shoved her aside. Jack stood up before the man coming towards him could reach him but he stilled grabbed his arms.

"What does he need?" Tom demanded, standing over Sawyer who was unconscious.

"Surgery," Jack said, looking around the large man in front of him. "I need to remove his spleen and check for perforations in his lungs."

"Can you do it?" asked Tom, looking at Jack.

Slowly Jack nodded, his heart pounding. He looked over at Kate as she struggled to free herself from the man holding her arms. They held them back as though afraid they'd attack Tom.

"Okay. We'll get it set up," Tom turned around and walked towards the door. "I'll be back"

They let go, and the guy holding Kate practically shoved her away, causing her to fall. Jack hurried over and helped her up. As the door closed, Alex's worried face was in the crack until it shut

……………………………

(off the island, a dock)

"Miss Widmore!"

Penny turned around. She had only just gotten out of her car. Saying goodbye to her husband and baby had been hard. Now she had put more determination in her heart than ever She had packed her bags, unsure of how much to bring. The sky was a bright blue as she drove to the dock that was three hours from her home. In her mind she pictured Desmond lying on a beach, perhaps skinny but alive. Maybe he was waiting for her to rescue him.

She turned around when she heard her name and saw Robert hurrying towards him. He was dressed in a white t-shirt that was too small over his large beer gut, and had a baseball cap over his balding head. He already had a flush of pink to his cheeks as he hurried towards it. It was late November but the weather was unseasonably warm, perhaps the last warm spurt before the cold rains and snow of winter.

"Do you need help with your bags?" he asked, panting slightly as he reached her. Behind him was the dock, large and expansive. Hundred of boats were lined up, some huge yachts and others were tiny sailboats. All along the water people were coming in and going out. Rich families relaxed on their boats, enjoying the last bit of warm weather.

"I wasn't sure how much to bring," she said as she popped the trunk and he came around to join her at the back of the car. In the trunk were three large suitcases.

"Oh dear," said Robert, cocking his eyebrow. "Perhaps you only need one?"

"How long are we expected to be at sea?" she asked worriedly, not looking at her suitcases anymore.

Robert turned slowly to her with a nervous look.

"Our best hope is a week, and that's if we find anything. I guess I should tell you now. We're going on this boat but it's not ours. We couldn't get clearance to have our own. We have to act like we're studying the zoology that these people are looking for. We sent them coordinates and said there was an abundance of genetically defective whales and sharks in one portion of the ocean, so they're going there. It's where we're searching. We have our equipment to measure the electromagnetic energy, but we can't let on about it."

She was slightly angry that all the money she had put into it couldn't get them their own boat, but realized there was nothing she could do now. She was already here, had already said goodbye to Richard and Georgia. She had to go through with it.

"A week?" she repeated, picking up the largest suitcase and heaving it onto the ground.

"Yes. If we find something. If we don't, we must let them go along with their research and it's an extra week but then we'd be back by the twenty-third. Is that alright?" he asked, looking concerned

"Yes fine," she mumbled, her mind not on the dates.

As she approached the boat, rumbling her large suitcase on wheels down the block, she had a strange feeling. The wheels of her suitcase banged against the boards on the dock. She approached a large yacht that was teeming with nerdy men and women running around with laptops and sound recording equipment. Several men were using cranes to lift large trunks onto the deck. All of this was muted to Penny. All she could see was the water, and how calm and serene it looked in the dock. She had a strange feeling as she stopped. She looked back at her car, and thought about her wedding ring inside the glove compartment. Somehow, she wondered if she'd ever put it back on.

Shaking her head she handed her suitcase to a man who had been waiting for her response. Robert took her arm and lead her up the ramp.

(end)

…………………………………..

"Again?" Charlie didn't understand. Locke sat there, looking almost sick. "What do you mean?"

Shaking his head, Lock looked down at the wound on his leg. He felt nothing. He knew it should hurt like hell, probably cause him to shout in pain but it didn't. It was like a fake wound, like makeup in a horror movie. He couldn't feel the warm blood pouring from it, or his hand as he felt it. There was nothing.

"We need to get you out," Charlie gasped, suddenly very claustrophobic. "I'm going to go back and see if Sayid can help."

Without waiting for John's response, Charlie jumped up and left the bathroom. He didn't run, but hurried through the computer room. He wasn't capable of handling something like this. Where was Jack when you needed him? Usually Jack jumped to heroics and would rescue everyone. Why was Charlie now in that place?

Reaching the hole Charlie realized it was smaller than before, the dirt sliding in from the top. Looking up he saw only a small bit of sunlight. He put his hands on the inside and tried to poke his head in to shout up.

"SAYID!"

But the movement of his hands caused a large amount of dirt to fall inside and hit Charlie in the face. He retracted, spitting and coughing dirt from his mouth and nose. He opened his eyes to see mud pouring in the hole. Suddenly it stopped.

Bending, he looked up and saw it was completely blocked.

"Hey!" Charlie shouted. "Hey! Help! I'm down here!"

Suddenly there was a rumbling.

Sayid knew he had to get Charlie out, but he also knew Hurley wasn't lying. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were in real danger. He had to get going, he had to get over to the other side of the island to help them.

He reached the mound where the hatch had been and stopped. Where was the hole? It almost looked like someone had covered it up, disguising it against the rest of the rest of the debris.

"Charlie?" Sayid called.

Hurley appeared behind him, panting.

"Do you believe me yet?" Hurley gasped.

"I think the hatch just collapsed in on itself," Sayid breathed, his eyes wide.

"Dude."


	7. Chapter 7: Lessons Learned

There was a strange rumbling somewhere above Charlie. As he looked up, chunks of the ceiling began to fall and dust and dirt began to trickle in through the cracks and holes. The entire hatch was rumbling, like it was sinking even deeper.

"CHARLIE!" shouted John from the bathroom.

Ducking, Charlie leapt through the hall and into the main room where the walls were also shaking, cracks running up and down. Pipes were bursting and water was spilling onto the floor. He skidded into the hall and through to the computer room where he dove through the doorway into the bathroom.

"What's happening?" John asked worriedly from his place on the floor.

"I don't know," Charlie ducked as several pieces of tile fell from the ceiling. Looking over, Charlie saw Eko was still lying with his eyes wide.

After a few moments the rumbling stopped. There was the sound of pipes hissing water into the hatch. Crumbling bits of dirt and parts of the walls were breaking and falling into puddles. Charlie looked up and around the dark bathroom that wasn't as badly damaged.

"I think we have a problem," Charlie spoke quietly.

……

Sayid scrambled, trying not to let the dirt slide back into where he'd dug but it was fruitless. The ground was shifting and moving and Hurley stumbled back. Sayid was knocked off his feet and rolled down the low incline of dirt.

"NO!" Sayid screamed in rage. He tried to climb back up it and slid in the dirt and mud. "NO!"

Why was this happening, he asked himself? Shannon, why can't you help me here? Often Sayid found himself asking that. He knew she was with him, but wanted to know why soemtimes she couldn't help him out.

It can't end this way, Sayid pleaded as he dug with his bare hands through the loose dirt. It was fruitless, the hatch was way beneath now. His heart was hammering and he knew the hatch had probably collapsed into itself, killing Charlie.

It wasn't fair.

"Sayid," Hurley said confusedly. He looked shocked, upset, and traumatized. He watched as Sayid dug frantically, repeating Shannon's name and asking her why.

"I'm going to go get…someone," Hurley turned and walked away.

……

"Jack," Kate hissed. "Can you do it?"

"I have to," Jack stood up and seemed to be trying to calm himself down. He walked to and fro, breathing deeply.

"What if he dies?"

Jack ignored her and paced. How could he do this? It was almost certain Sawyer would die. He felt like he had back when Sawyer came back with the infected bullet wound. It had seemed so certain. He had lied to everyone, saying there was hope. How could he do that now?

Somehow, Jack was brought back to his wedding. As he paced, he could see Sarah's face. Why, he wondered, was he thinking this now? It made absolutely no sense. He could see her standing there as they gave their vows, and as they pronounced their love. Perhaps it was because at no other time had Jack been as scared as he had been that day.

Looking at Kate he saw her desperation and her fear. He wanted so badly to tell her it would be okay. It was like a second calling to him, to help fix things and make people feel better.

Yet he couldn't find it in himself to do it.

The door reopened and Kate stood. Both Jack and her expected to be grabbed again but this time two large men came in with a stretcher. They went over to Sawyer and laid it beside him, then carefully moving him onto it and lifting it again.

"We'll start him on antibiotics," Tom said from the doorway as they carried Sawyer out. Kate had a hand over her mouth. "Come on."

Jack looked at Kate and then went through the doorway.

……

Penny felt slightly seasick and they had only been at sea for a day. She had spent most of it asleep in her cabin. She wasn't feeling great and supposed the stress of having to leave her family behind wasn't helping.

She came onto the deck where several researchers were lowering audio devices into the churning water to capture whale calls.

"Fascinating," she enthused as she passed as they gave her bright-eyed looks. She came up to Robert who was at the forward deck looking out onto the expansive ocean.

"Refreshing isn't it?" Robert said, grinning at her. He saw her pale green look and sighed. "I guess not for all."

"When are we expected to reach the area?" she asked quietly, trying to speak above the wind while also trying to keep out of voice range of the people behind her.

"A week, possibly," Robert whispered, glancing over his shoulder. "You should try to enjoy the trip."

"Hard to," she sighed.

"Oy! You've got to hear this!" shouted a voice from above deck.

Many of the researchers scrambled from their posts and clogged the stairwell to the upper deck. Robert and Penny followed more slowly and were on the edge of the group as everyone gathered around the speaker in which the whale calls were being transmitted.

But something else was coming through. It was crackling and static and then numbers being repeated over and over again

…

"4 8 15 16 23 42…4 8 15 16 23 42…4 8 15 16 23 42"

"What is that?" whispered Penny, looking at Robert.

"We must be picking up someone else's coordinates," said the researcher who was twiddling with knobs to make it clearer. For a moment the chanting of the numbers was loud and clear, repeating over the group. It reached a fever pitch where it was almost deafening and then it turned to static and there was only the sound of the waves hitting the side of the boat as the yacht crashed through the choppy waters.

"Strange," Penny said to Robert as they turned and went back out to the deck. Most of the researchers reclaimed their posts and others began hurrying around with notes. "Those numbers make no sense."

"It's probably a bad transmission," Robert said uneasily. But Penny saw something in his eyes.

"What is it?" she asked firmly, stopping. She wrapped her arms around her as the chilly ocean air whipped her blonde hair about.

"I've heard those numbers before," he said quietly.

……..

Jack had the same scrubs on as he had when operating on the other man. Blood stains covered it. He had been able to wash his hands but there was no soap. No gloves, nothing to keep infection out. Jack was trying as hard as he could to keep from shaking as he was lead into the operating room.

The blood on the floor had been mopped but wasn't completely gone. Scarlet shone in several places and along the walls. The same people were in the room and Jack immediately found Kate's eyes among the shrouded and masked.

On the table lay Sawyer, only his shirt removed. He still wore his trademark jeans and shoes. Somehow, it was a sad sight. Sawyer looked so defeated, so worn down as he lay there. Jack approached and suddenly was terrified out of his mind.

"Jack," Kate went to say but someone gripped her arm and she had a shark intake of breath.

Jack worked as best as he could. There was no suction, and the tools and sewing he had were rough. He fixed the perforation in Sawyer's lung and then went to remove the spleen. It would be pointless to leave it in there to get infected.

As Jack worked he could feel Kate's eyes on him, begging him not to make a mistake. He could feel everyone watching, as he tried his best to keep his work neat with the amount of blood coming out. Jack kept a close eye on Sawyer's face for any sign of him waking up. He knew they had given him something but wasn't sure what.

"I'm pretty much done," Jack said as he began to sew Sawyer's small incision up.

"Not yet," Tom suddenly came around the doorway with a small cart. "You have one last thing to do."

"What?" Jack looked confusedly from Sawyer lying bleeding on the table to the covered cart.

"You're going to give him a new liver," Tom said calmly, removing the blanket and revealing a human liver lying in a bucket of water. "No questions asked."

"I can't do a liver transplant!" Jack exclaimed.

Suddenly the man behind Kate gripped her around the throat and began to squeeze. Her hands went to his enormous arm, her eyes going wide as she struggled to breathe. Jack went to move and the man held up a hand, indicating that if Jack moved then it'd be over.

"Will you do it?" Tom growled.

For a moment Kate could see the pain in Kate's eyes he felt inside. They were stuck, they had no choice. Jack wondered for a split second where he'd be if he'd missed his flight…

"Okay," Jack gasped and the man let go of Kate. "I'll do it."

Kate stumbled and fell to her knees, gasping and holding her throat. Jack looked from Sawyer's face to the liver and then sighed.

"I need more light."

……………

He had walked around again and found the hatch was completely blocked in. The hole he had climbed through was gone, filled in with more dirt that was beginning to pile in the hallway. It seemed they were sinking even deeper. A sense of hopelessness filled Charlie was he returned to the bathroom.

Charlie was able to drag John out of the bathroom and into the computer room where they leaned against the wall, looking out upon the wreckage. Most of the yellow lights in the ceiling had gone out, leaving only spots of glowing ember like circles on the debris. Charlie could see all the utensils that had been sticking to the wall had fallen.

"How are you paralyzed?" Charlie asked for the nineteenth time. He was exhausted and somehow realized that they might not get out of there.

John didn't answer. In his head he was trying to remember how it felt to walk. He remembered the feeling of standing, and walking quickly across the sand. It was a joy he'd only had for a short time and now was gone.

"Some guys thought I'd stolen money from them," John said quietly, his eyes staring off into one of the yellow lights. "So they came to my house and shot me."

"That's it?" Charlie looked disappointed.

"What, expecting some big dramatic story?" John seemed to brighten.

"Yeah! I was expecting something about you chasing down Rhinos in Africa and getting butted by one and ripped to shreds by a viscous lion!" Charlie enthused. He realized he didn't feel too well. "I suppose being a good boar hunter doesn't make you Indiana Jones."

"No, it's doesn't," sighed John.

"If you were paralyzed, how come you were walking?" Charlie asked.

"Because the island fixed me," and John said this with utmost certainty. "It cured me."

"You can't cure something like that," Charlie shook his head. The silence was making him sleepy and slightly goofy. "Nope."

"I was walking, Charlie. And now I can't," John looked sadly at him. "You don't believe me?"

"That the plane crash cured your back? No," Charlie snorted. "It's crazy."

"As crazy as a plane crashing on an island with a hatch where you push a button every one hundred and eight minutes?"

He had a point, Charlie thought solemnly.

"Why is it back?" asked Charlie softly, not wanting to sound rude.

"Because whatever crashed the plane fixed it. Whatever happened when we didn't press that button, was what happened when the plane crashed. It happened a second time and I suppose…reversed it," John seemed oddly calm about this and it kind of creeped Charlie out. He thought about Eko's wide, staring eyes back in the bathroom and shivered.

"Do you suppose Jack and the others got Walt back?"

………..

Slowly, Jack stepped away from Sawyer on the table and looked down at his blood soaked hands. How, he wondered, was Sawyer ever going to survive now? He was still alive, his pulse still strong and he was still under whatever anesthetic they'd given him. But now infection would take over.

"He needs massive, I mean loads of antibiotics," Jack said in a wavering voice, the blood on his hands glimmering in the cheap light.

"We have a stock but we have to conserve," Tom snapped, gripped Jack's arm and pulling him towards the other room. "He is not the only person here who needs them."

"You have stocks of antibiotics?" Jack gasped, his heart still seized up in his chest as it had been during the entire surgery.

"Yes," Tom starting pulling Jack down the hall and Jack ripped his arm away.

"We had over a dozen people die because of infection, and you had antibiotics?" Jack shouted angrily. His blood was pounding. Sawyer would die possibly within a day, and all because this guy was being careful with his stock. "YOU HAD THEM?"

The club came down hard on Jack's head and although he didn't pass out, he was dazed as Tom dragged him back to their cell and threw him inside, his blood stained hands leaving streaks on the floor.

"You'll watch your tone with me, boy!" Tom shouted from the doorway as Jack feebly rose to his hands and knees. "Remember, I still have your girlfriend!"

The door slammed shut tight.

Kate had helped them move Sawyer into another room where many more people lay unconscious on stretchers and gurneys that lay on the floor. It was a makeshift ICU, she knew that. No one was around to check them and from their eyes, she knew several were dead. When they set down Sawyer, the rest of them headed away and she hurried to him.

"Sawyer," she whispered, putting her hand to his cheek. "Sawyer, if you can hear me, it's going to be okay."

Sawyer seemed to be deeply under. She thought of the pain he'd be in when he woke up and her eyes stung.

"It's going to be fine. Jack fixed you," she could see Jack's face when he stepped away, that look that told her nothing would be okay. "It's fine."

"Let's go," someone said, gripping Kate and pulling her up.

He roughly shoved her ahead of him and she fell over someone's feet, landing hard on the ground. Looking up, she was beside someone whose dead blank eyes stared right into her. She let out a scream and went to stand but was yanked up and dragged through the door into the hallway.

"No," Tom appeared, walking towards them. "She gets put somewhere else. I want him to learn his lesson."

Kate's eyes went wide as the man holding her turned her around and they went towards another part of the hall.

Reaching a doorway with an open door, she looked inside and saw what looked like dark mounds of something. A horrible smell was emitting from the room.

"This will teach them," Tom gave grin.

Kate was flung inside and landed hard, hurrying to stand to rush to the door as it slammed and locked. She pounded the door, trying to open it but nothing worked. Turning around she couldn't see, it was too dark. Reaching over with her hand she fumbled for some kind of light switch and turned it on.

Bodies, in all states of decay were piled in merciless mounds all around the borders of the room.

Kate's scream echoed in her own head.


	8. Chapter 8: Fate

(off the island, a boat)

After four days at sea, Penny was going a little stir crazy. With the only scenery being the view from her porthole in her small cramped cabin, she wasn't sure how much longer she could take this. A storm was blowing in from the north and was pushing them in the wrong direction. She heard one of the researchers say it could take days to get back on course. 

"Nothing to worry about," Robert reassured her. "Everything's fine. We're nearing the coordinates."

Yet something still didn't seem right.

On the fourth day at sundown, many of the scientists were gathered on one side of the boat, many cameras flashing at the almost dark sea and shrill squeals of excitement erupting randomly from them. She came up from her cabin slightly bleary-eyed and hugged her coat tighter to her more as a sense of security than because it was cold.

"What is it?" she asked Robert who was leaning against the side, looking merely amused.

"A school of sharks," he said calmly, sipping hot coffee from a mug. "They're feeding."

Looking down she saw a lot of splashing in the water and blood colored foam arising to the top. Every so often a tail would whip into view before disappearing below the churning surface. All the people seemed so amazed at this.

"Exciting," she mused, trying to hold back her sarcasm. "How close are we?"

"Close," he looked out at the setting sun on the horizon, how it was only a small blur just above the water line. "We could reach it by tomorrow night."

"And?" she asked, her heart suddenly pumping faster.

"And what?"

"What do we do when we're there?" she asked.

"My dear, we hope that there is something to do once we're there," and he seemed to be trying to be as nice as possible through obvious frustration. "We're betting everything on your orders to act."

"I know but…"

"Just remember that next time you ask me what next."

He walked away holding his mug tightly. Robert had been her only companion on this voyage but she knew he was tired of her. She knew he believed Desmond to be dead.

"CAPTAIN!"

There was a bellow from above. The captain had come down to view the school of sharks. The scream caused him to look up, the only thing differentiating himself from the others a stark white captains had perched on his head.

"ROCKS!"

"In the middle of the ocean?" Penny exclaimed.

The captain took the stairs three at a time and made it to the wheel. Looking ahead he saw water smashing against what looked like a line of rocks. Looking left and right he saw nothing, but it was also pitch dark out and a fog was rolling in along with the thunder.

"Hard to starboard!" he shouted, twisting the wheel.

Everyone on deck felt the jerk and stumbled sideways. Penny gripped the side and as she looked down, she saw something very odd. The sharks that had just been feeding were now floating belly up in the water, dead.

"There's more!" shouted what had to be the first mate. The captain had barely stepped out of the room to check over the side when the shout came. "Everywhere!"

A roaring filled the air as everyone was thrown from their feet, hitting the deck hard as something struck the bottom of the yacht. Penny looked up in time to see the sky turn upside down.

(end)

Sawyer felt like a huge weight were on top of him, keeping his eyes shut and keeping him from moving. Automatically he went to raise his hand to his eyes but he found he couldn't move. He knew his eyes were opened and suddenly a terrified pang went through him. Am I blind, he wondered?

But very blurry shapes were coming into focus. As they did, he became more aware of his body and the amount of pain in it. At first it was a dull roar, becoming sharper and clearer with his vision. As the ceiling came into sharp focus, the pain hit him like a truck.

"Aauugghhh!"

He let out a groan of agony and arched his back. Every inch of him hurt, but mostly his abdomen. Lowering a hand, he felt many bandages. Turning his head he saw he was lying on the ground beside some guy who was too blue to be alive.

On his other side was a pile of what looked like bloody blankets. He felt like he was going to be sick but knew he didn't have the energy to move.

What was happening?

"Don't try to talk or move."

His eyes searched wildly for the source of the voice. Finally they fell upon Alex, who knelt beside him. An enormous explosion of relief took place in his chest.

"You had surgery," she said gently, taking a wet cloth from the basket beside her and wiping Sawyer's brow. "Jack did it."

The doc? Why would the doc operate on me?

"They don't know you're alive and I don't think they're going to tell him. But if you're going to live you need more medicine. They already gave you some today but I'm giving you more. This way you'll get better faster," she was talking fast and he couldn't keep up. His mind felt foggy as he tried to remember the last thing he did. "Can you hear me?"

He nodded very slightly and realized he was grinding his teeth. The pain was so excruciating he was wondering how he could possibly get himself to go back to sleep. Alex continued to wipe his brow and then checked his bandages. Then she took out a large syringe.

Sawyer tried to move, but he couldn't. He could only groan as she pressed it into his arm. She took it out and looked away, checking for anyone entering.

"It'll help, I promise," she said softly. Was this girl actually feeling sorry for me?

"The doc…"

Alex turned, looking back at Sawyer.

"What?"

"The doc and Kate. They're okay?" he mumbled, not wanting to move his mouth more.

"Yeah," she seemed almost relieved at this question. "They're fine."

"Me?" he breathed, his breath coming in short gasps.

"I don't know. They…they won't tell me anything," Alex looked away from Sawyer and he knew she was lying. He had no energy to fight.

As Alex continued to talk to Sawyer, Jack was pacing the cell.

Where could they have taken Kate? He knew he'd done something wrong, he knew it. But what he also knew was that what they made him to do to Sawyer wasn't out of the blue. Jack understood.

After three hours, the door opened and Kate fell inside, landing on her hands and knees and staying there. The door slammed shut and Jack ran to her.

"Kate?" he whispered, so glad that she was okay.

She remained looking down, her hair falling in her face. Her arms were shaking with her sobs. She silently cried, looking down at the floor.

"Kate," he repeated, trying to get her to stand. "What happened?"

Slowly she looked up at him and sat back on her heels. Tears were falling like never before, and her sobs were keeping her silent. He had never seen her like this. Kate wasn't one to cry. She was so strong, so tough.

"What did they do?" he demanded.

"Where's Sawyer?" she sobbed.

….

Kate had screamed and screamed until her throat was raw. She flattened herself against the door, the only part of the room not invaded by corpses. She could see children's faces, and others with their skin decaying off. The smell was horrible and she vomited over and over until her legs shook and she was sure her head would explode.

Suddenly she stopped. Looking at a pair of legs sticking out from under the pile. The boots, the rough jeans….

"Sawyer," she breathed.

They left her in there for three hours. She remained against the door, only looking at the pair of legs she could swear were so familiar to her. She could almost see the rest of him lying under that pile but couldn't bring herself to go to him.

When the door clicked she had jumped up and rushed at it. She had run right past the man standing outside and he grabbed her and she screamed, falling to her knees. For a moment she remained there and then he yanked her up.

"Had enough?" he cackled.

…..

"Sawyer?" Jack said hurtfully. She was upset and terrified and could only think about Sawyer?

"I think…" she couldn't breathe, and barely speak. "I think he's dead."

Jack's heart seemed to fall into his stomach.

"What?" he shook his head as though trying to clear it. "How?"

"I saw…" she cried, shaking as she gripped Jack and he kept her standing. "I saw….some…I…"

"It's okay," he pulled her closer and she cried. She cried for being here and for Sawyer but mostly for the fact that Jack was now alone. She knew he would blame himself for Sawyer's death, and that it would leave him alone because he'd push her away.

"I want to go home," she whispered, still holding onto him tightly. "I want to go back home."

At first when Kate said home, Jack pictured their side of the island and he surprised himself that he was calling that home so fast. Yet he knew what she meant.

……..

"Sayid?"

Sayid was digging and digging by himself. He was sweating and pale, and breathing heavily as he continued to excavate what he could. It had sunk deeper and the hole had collapsed. The dirt was hardening under the sun and he had less than half an hour of daylight left.

He didn't even hear Hurley come up behind him.

"Sayid!"

For a moment Sayid stopped. He looked back at Hurley exhaustedly.

"Sun wants you," Hurley said, and then stopped himself. "I mean, she's looking…well you knew what I meant."

"Not now," Sayid couldn't think of anything else right now. He knew Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were in danger. He also knew Charlie would run out of air eventually if he even was still alive down there. Right now as he dug, he felt like he was doing it for Shannon. Her face was the clearest in his mind right now, and it seemed almost as if he lost at this, he had lost her forever.

"Sun said you need to get to the boat," Hurley said, looking around. He was still slightly delirious but determined. "You have to help them!"

"I have to help Charlie too!" Sayid shouted over his shoulder, continuing to dig.

"If Charlie was in there…" Hurley could barely bring himself to say it. "He's probably gone, man."

"No," said Sayid firmly as he continued to dig. "No. I have to do this first. Then the others. I can't stop now."

Sun had come down the path and was watching Sayid dig with all of his might. Jack was gone for who knew how long, and now their only leader was running himself thin trying to save everyone at once.

She only wondered how he'd react when she told him about the symptoms.

………………

The boat seemed to dip at a complete ninety-degree angle. Penny reached out and the first thing she grabbed was a pipe in the side of the cabin. As the boat tipped to one side, her body left the deck and for a split second she was dangling above the dark, thrashing waters. There were crashes as many people slid off the deck and onto the rocks, screaming. Gripping it with all her might, she felt the rain come and as it downpoured the boat righted itself, coming back up to level, swinging terribly as though the front were stuck.

She let go of the pipe and looked about the deck that was now completely empty.

"MISS WIDMORE!"

Looking up she saw Robert climbing out of the cabin. He had a large cut on his head as he rushed towards her.

"We've hit some rocks!" he shouted, his usual calm undertone gone as he helped her up quickly. "The boat is taking on water!"

"Everyone just fell!" she gasped, her mind barely wrapping around what was happening.

"We need to get on a life boat," he said. "The captain has one ready."

Robert pulled Penny along the slightly slanted deck, her tennis shoes slipping in the now torrential downpour. Her long coat was drenched within moments, as were her slacks and t-shirt. She thought of all her things below, and her wallet and purse with pictures of her daughter inside.

They reached the forward deck where over the side they were preparing to lower a very small rowboat. Around it were the remaining passengers, only about five or six young researchers looking terrified as they stood in the rain, waiting to get on.

"Where will we go to?" she shrieked as the wind whipped her hair about her face.

"There's land!" Robert pointed to the west. "We didn't see it coming in!"

She squinted and very barely through the rain and fog she could see the dim outline of what looked like a landmass.

"Miss?" said the Captain, beckoning her forward.

"Oi! Something's coming through!" the first mate came scrambling down the steps from the control room. The boat was tilting more now. Penny jumped in the boat with Robert beside her. The others standing around the boat were trying to get in.

"It's in French!" he shouted, hurrying to the captain with what looked like a walkie talkie. He held it up to the Captain's ear as the Captain prevented people from getting on. "What is it saying?"

"Something about 'they're all dead'," the Captain looked annoyed. "And numbers. Forget it! GET IN!"

There was a trembling and the boat tipped precariously. Penny gripped Robert as the lifeboat swayed on its thin ropes. The Captain jumped in and just as the first made got in, a wave crashed into the side of the yacht.

Just below, Penny could see the rocks that the boat was so badly damaged on. It rose onto them but was swaying with the force of the water and beginning to slide back down. Quickly, ignoring the shouts of the people on board, the Captain began to lower.

"WHAT ABOUT THEM?" Penny screamed.

"NO TIME!"

The small boat had just reached the water's surface when a final way hit the yacht. Quickly, with one swipe of a pocketknife, the first mate cut the ropes holding the small lifeboat to the yacht. It fell with a splash into the water and bounced back up. Penny looked up at the terrified faces of the remaining people on board.

As they rowed away in the choppy seas, the rain pounded the tiny boat. Penny watched as the yacht took a few more bangs by the waves and finally fell back into them. Within a matter of seconds she was sinking sideways and the boat was just a white mass in the fog and rain as it finally slipped below the surface.

"Will we make it to land?" Penny shrieked in fear at the Captain and first mate who were rowing.

They ignored her as the sea pounded the tiny boat. Their rowing seemed fruitless as they were tossed around by the waves. She could see glimmers of the rocks below the surface and knew they were everywhere. She didn't turn around and look at the landmass they were moving towards. She was concentrated on the waves attacking the boat, almost flipping it with every splash.

"What is that?" shouted Robert, pointing.

For the first time Penny turned around and looked at the land. It was a long beach with mountains rising behind it. But what was prominent on the beach was a large sculpture of a leg and foot, like a larger statue had been broken leaving only one leg. It was twenty stories high and shimmered in the mist like a ghost.

"Possibly Figi!" shouted the Captain as he continued to row.

"LOOKOUT!" Penny screamed.


	9. Chapter 9: In the Rough

"How did it happen?"

John had been zoning out, staring off into the musty doorway that led to the trashed and flooded computer room. His mind had wandered back a long time ago to a time when he thought the rest of his life resided in a wheelchair.

"How did what happen?" John asked, turning confusedly to Charlie.

"How were you paralyzed?"

John looked at Charlie's dirty and tired face. They had only been there an hour yet it felt like forever. Already John could feel the air getting musty and his slight claustrophobia was starting to get to him. Behind them, hidden by the closed shower doors, was Eko lying dead in the bottom of the shower.

"I was shot," Locke said, looking away from Charlie slowly, his eyes still unfocused. "I was shot in the back."

"By who?" Charlie knew he was pressing but if he didn't keep talking the idea of being stuck down here would drive him nuts. He knew Sayid would get them out, of that he was sure.

"Someone thought I was someone else," Locke looked down at his legs that seemed almost detached from his body. He couldn't feel them. He did not feel the weight of his hand on his thigh or the wound that was still bleeding. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh," Charlie was disappointed, expecting a better story.

"Perhaps you should go see if there's any progress," John suggested, taking a deep breath as though to refresh himself and take him away from the memory. "Maybe Sayid is almost in."

"Okay."

Charlie stood but knew why Locke wanted him to go. Charlie had touched a sensitive subject but he was just so fascinated by the fact that the plane crash had cured John. Perhaps it hadn't. Maybe Locke was lying and wasn't in a wheelchair, and had gotten injured when the hatch began to collapse. Maybe he'd fallen badly and broken his back and only now his legs weren't working. Charlie even doubted Locke's sanity at this point, especially after the strange white light.

Walking through the computer room Charlie was halfway across when he heard something. Freezing, he looked down at the water in puddles all along the ground. There was the sound again, almost like a scuffling. Turning, he saw the square hole in the ground where there had been a door that was twisted off and now stuck to the opposite wall.

Slowly Charlie bent. He could see nothing except faint glimmers from the pale yellow light in the water that had pooled down there. It seemed to be a fairly shallow hole.

Looking back at the doorway, Charlie decided John could wait and carefully lowered himself down.

The water was only ankle deep but to go through this passage Charlie would have to get on his hands and knees. He could see nothing and didn't go any further than the opening. For a moment there was silence and then there was the scuffling again.

Leaping from the hole, Charlie practically dove across the floor, skidding on the wet. He threw himself back into the bathroom, startling Locke.

"What?"

"There's someone down there!" Charlie gasped, looking back. "Or something!"

Locke's eyes grew wide.

……………………..

"Kate," Jack was trying to get Kate to calm down. "I need to tell you something."

She seemed to stop crying immediately and looked at him with wide eyes. Perhaps she was expecting something terrible, or possibly even good news. All she knew was that his voice told her to listen.

"When they made me do that surgery on Sawyer," Jack spoke in short spouts, his throat catching every so often, "it wasn't for nothing."

"What do you mean?" she asked slowly, her eyes shining in the darkness. He almost reveled at the paleness of her skin and how it seemed to glow.

"Something wasn't right. I removed Sawyer's liver and…it was covered in tumors. It didn't feel right either. It was just the wrong color and unless you've seen one it's hard to explain but…"

"My dad…" she stopped and shook her head. "Yeah, my dad had liver cancer and they removed part of it. I've seen a liver."

"Well, then you know what I'm talking about. Sawyer was sick, Kate. He had some kind of cancer. It was completely destroyed and I was surprised at the condition he was in before it. Those tumors looked big, as though they've been there a while…."

"Are you saying Sawyer was sick before the surgery?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Yes and no. At the size they were, he wouldn't have had long if we were still stuck here. I think that's why they took him, I think they knew. I doubt Sawyer has seen a real doctor in years. Men like him are too proud…"

"Jack," Kate jerked Jack back on course.

"Anyway. I think he was sick and that's why they wanted him," he looked carefully at Kate. "They wanted to test their organs on him because he was already sick and they could see if he improved."

"But he was hurt. Won't that…"

"Yeah but liver function is completely different. No doubt Sawyer was a heavy drinker, it was obvious. But drinking doesn't cause liver cancer. Well, it can but in his case it looked more like….Kate I can't explain it. Nothing around it seemed effected. The tumors hadn't spread. It was just on that one organ," Jack wished he could explain it better. "Almost like…"

"They were put there," she whispered.

Sighing, Jack nodded.

"When though?" she asked. "You said it looked like he was sick a while."

"Yes, if they didn't infect him first," Jack stood back and started to pace, something he did when he was thinking hard. "If they infected him, the tumors would grow rapidly but would have no time to spread because it would only target the one…"

"Jack, they don't have the right medicine or equipment to even keep people alive after surgery and you're saying they infected him with cancer within the time we've been here? How do we even know if Sawyer is alive?" she suddenly looked very upset and recrossed her arms looking away. A swell of jealousy rose in Jack's chest again but faded quickly.

"If he's alive, it would be a miracle," whispered Jack, looking down. "The infection would be bad. And if he rejects the organ…"

"There were more," she could barely speak she had begun to shake so hard. "I saw it, a whole room of people that looked like they'd gone through the same thing. But some were dead and…"

Her mind raced back to the room full of dead people and she closed her eyes trying to compose herself. When she was brought back, she found Jack standing right before her.

"I have a plan to get us out of here," he whispered softly to her, barely moving his lips.

…………………….

Penny saw the enormous wave coming before anyone else did and ducked as it crashed into the boat sending it seesawing back and forth. Penny clung onto the side and felt her entire left side drenched as it submerged momentarily just to be wobbled back again. Looking around she saw they hadn't lost anyone.

The waves came harder and faster and she could see the fear in the captain's eyes through the heavy rain. Looking at Robert, she saw he had his eyes closed in fear.

Her daughter's face flashed before her eyes and she could almost feel the warmth of holding her.

Then the wave came.

It knocked into the boat and Penny realized she was flying through the air just as she hit the water hard. Surfacing she was tumbled again and felt her body connect with something sharp, possibly a piece of the boat. Struggling to see she watched as another wave came down on her, sending her beneath the waves, struggling.

"ROBERT!" she screamed just to be submerged again.

The thrashing water threw her hard against the rocks and her head struck a rock and everything went black.

When her eyes opened it had felt like she was unconscious less than two seconds but the brightening sky and the ground beneath her told her it was longer. Slowly she tried to focus. There was the sound of waves but it wasn't harsh, but very gentle. Wind was blowing the trees and the sun was beating down heatedly.

Water hit her and she jumped up, realizing she had been lying on her back just at the shore, being pushed further and further up the beach by the waves. Looking around, she saw a long stretch of beach on either side of her.

As she went to stand she let out a cry of pain. Her arm was definitely broken. Looking down at it, she could see it was bent at a strange angle through her blouse. The pain was piercing and for a moment she bit her lip, trying to keep from screaming.

The sun was a dull pink as she carefully got to her feet, every movement making her arm ache. Her coat was gone, probably washed away by the waves. She only wore a thin red blouse and jeans, which were soaked, and she saw blood on her shirt and could feel scratches and wounds from the rocks all along her back. Her entire body ached as she stood on the sand missing one shoe. Looking down, she kicked the remaining one off.

Her eyes caught something on the beach about one hundred yards to her left. It looked like a white mass for a moment and then she saw a white shirt and her heart jumped.

"Robert!" she shouted, starting forward. For a moment her stomach was flipping with joy that he was on the beach. As she approached, though, she knew something was wrong.

It wasn't Robert but the Captain. Suddenly she stopped and turned, vomiting into the sand.

The Captain's right arm had been chewed off, leaving only a bloody ragged stump with bits of flesh and bone dangling from the shoulder. The shirt was covered in blood with hundreds of teeth marks where parts of his abdomen and other arm had been chewed away. His face was a bloody mess and his one remaining eyes stared up at the now brilliant blue sky blankly.

She felt sick and was sure she'd throw up again. Her stomach seized but she didn't vomit. Instead she realized with sick horror that it could have been her. The sharks could have eaten her as well.

"Robert!" she shouted, praying he was okay. How had she washed up here and no one else had?

She headed back down to where she'd woken up, where her shoe lay in the sand. The rocks were just a few yards away and she knew she was lucky she hadn't been killed.

Suddenly she froze. A figure was walking out of the jungle wearing khaki colored clothing. Her heart seemed to tighten as she wondered who this person was and then her stomach dropped as they turned and spotted her.

………………………

"I'm almost in!" Sayid said as Sun returned for the second time. She'd left and come back half an hour later hoping Sayid had come to his senses but now he was even sweatier and dirtier, sitting in a five foot hole digging with a broken makeshift shovel. The sky was almost completely dark with only the light from the moon lighting the area.

"Sayid!" Sun bent at the top of the hole. "This is insane!"

Suddenly Sayid stopped. Right below him was some bedrock. Immediately he began digging faster. He uncovered it and realized it was cracking and tried to crack it more.

"I'm almost in!"

Sun watched as Sayid continuously dug. She wondered if he'd pass out first or just fall headfirst into the dirt. But she realized he was right because as Sayid dug, dirt began falling into the middle and suddenly a large chunk of Earth fell right through into an empty space.

"YES!" Sayid used the shovel to widen it, chopping down the dirt to shove it through. The hole was about two feet wide. Sayid was sweating profusely and looked slightly sick.

"I'll need help!" Sayid called up to Sun who was watching with wide eyes. "Get Jin!"

Without questioning, Sun hurried off.

Sayid felt nauseous and extremely faint as he lowered himself into the hole. His tired arms shook as he held his weight and then dropped.

But Sayid wasn't in any part of the hatch he recognized. He was in some strange tunnel that was only about three feet high. Carefully climbing out he reached for the flashlight, as the sky was now almost completely dark, and shone it down.

It was made of stone and was completely circular, like a long cylinder. Whatever this was, it wasn't the hatch.

Looking up, he saw parts of the rock that made up the long tunnel were cracked and water was leaking through some. He doubted the safety of it but wondered if maybe it lead right into the hatch.

Stooping, Sayid walked forward. The way behind him was mostly blocked with the dirt he'd knocked in. Bent double, Sayid walked forward, his feet sloshing in the mud that was at the bottom. His hands were shaking slightly with exhaustion and the sweat was running down his face and into his eyes. He was breathing heavily, close to passing out.

His tiny flashlight shone on nothing but the stone walls as he walked. Looking back, he could see the entrance he's created growing smaller and smaller in the darkness. The tunnel was weak where he'd broken through and he hoped it wasn't weak in any other places.

After walking for five minutes Sayid came to a block. The tunnel looked as though it had collapsed in and dirt filled the tunnel. But it looked muddy and extremely wet. A horrid stench was coming from the water below him and he supposed decomposing rodents or leaves were causing it. Reaching out, he pressed the muddy wall with his hand and felt it go right through.

It was a thin barrier. Holding the flashlight in his teeth, Sayid pushed the mud forward, knocking it into the hole. Beyond it lay more tunnel. He was able to move enough of the mud to slide through, although now he was absolutely covered in the grime and muck.

Ignoring this, he wiped off the flashlight and climbed to his feet again, still stooping almost double. He walked slowly now, his heart thudding in his chest. If this tunnel collapsed, he was dead. It was underground, and any kind of earth tremor could cause it to cave in.

It was another few minutes when Sayid stopped.

This time before him was a large wood board, roughly cut to fit the tunnel although the corners left gaps. Roughly drawn on the wood, was the swan.


	10. Chapter 10: Side Effects

"Sayid!" Sun shouted down the hole, Jin standing above her. "SAYID!"

"He can't hear me," she said to her husband in Korean. "I think he may be hurt. I need to help him."

"No!" Jin said in Korean, his eyes flashing. "You're not going down there."

"Then you go!" she shrieked.

Jin, nodding, bent and hopped into the hole.

……….

Sayid looked up and down the large piece of wood. The swan was drawn perfectly, as though someone had seen it so many times it was memorized. Pushing hard, Sayid found the block moved easily and fell down, cracking at the bottom of the tunnel.

He stepped over it and froze.

Something was moving up ahead. Small pinpricks of light were shining through illuminating the wet floor and walls. But there was a shadow moving in front of it. Sayid shone his flashlight straight ahead, his heart pounding.

What if it's an animal? Then he's trapped and could be hurt. But he had no choice, he couldn't turn back now.

Going forward he suddenly froze.

………………

"There's a good chance Sawyer will die, or is already dead," Jack began.

"How can you say that?" Kate gasped, pulling back from him.

"Because it's reality! If we get out, there's no point wasting time looking for him if he's dead we have to accept the facts," Jack said desperately.

"I'm not accepting he's dead until I see it myself," said Kate, praying she'd never have to see it.

"Kate! It might be our only chance!" he was desperate now.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" she demanded.

"I wont watch them kill you," he suddenly spat, his anger exploding over the surface. His eyes blazed and Kate stepped back a bit, frightened. "I won't watch you die."

"But you'll give up on Sawyer?" she shouted angrily.

"IS THERE A PROBLEM?"

A voice boomed from behind the door. They both turned to look at it as the lock turned and the door swung open, causing them to squint at the bright light coming in from the hall.

"Keep it down," snapped a guard wearing khaki clothes and holding a rifle. "Don't make me separate you two."

The door shut again and Jack turned to Kate again.

"We can't stay here. They're going to kill us eventually they wont keep us forever," he sounded almost manic.

Kate stared long and hard at the door. In her heart she knew there wasn't much chance Sawyer would survive but she couldn't give up on him. What if he lived and was stuck here after they escaped? As horrible as Sawyer was sometimes she felt like leaving him behind was like abandoning all hope.

"Okay," she whispered, looking down. "What's your plan?"

……………..

Sawyer awoke again, this time the pain beyond excruciating. He let out a small moan and turned over, sure he would vomit but he didn't. His stomach was empty, he hadn't eaten in days. His entire body ached with such force it felt like it was on fire. Looking around he saw he was in a different room but with just as many people and bodies. It was darker now, and not that many people were bending over those lying on mats on the ground like Sawyer was.

"Are you awake?"

Sawyer jumped and slowly turned his head. Alex was standing over him and quickly bent.

"I stole you more antibiotics," she whispered.

"You know what you're doing?" Sawyer asked as he watched her fill the needle.

"I hope," she gave him a hopeful look.

Great, he thought, I'll overdose. He let her inject him with it, not having the energy to fight. When she was done she didn't go right away. She stayed and just looked at him.

"Is it true?" she asked curiously. "What they say?"

"Is what true?" Sawyer grunted. He didn't even care to ask where Jack and Kate were, or what had happened. He was too out of it, his mind spinning with pain.

"That you killed everyone on the plane?"

Sawyer's eyes grew wide.

"What?" he demanded, wincing at the pain when he raised his voice and reverted to a whisper. "What are you talking about?"

"They say that you killed everyone except the two you're with and then made them walk across the island. They say you're crazy," she whispered.

Reaching out a hand Sawyer wanted to grasp her shirt tightly and tell her that was all bull but found he couldn't and dropped his hand again. Looking helplessly at the ceiling he gritted his teeth.

"Am I going to die?" he asked through gritted teeth

"No," she whispered.

"Why are you helping me?"

Alex didn't answer and just put the syringe into a basket beside the mat where other used things were.

"Maybe I want out," she hissed, looking around the room. "Maybe you're my only way out."

"I won't be running out of here anytime soon," Sawyer said sarcastically. He couldn't even find it inside himself to be mean. His entire body felt like it was broken. "Hey kid."

Alex looked at him sadly.

"Are my friends okay?" he whispered.

"I think so," she said, glancing at the door again. "I saw them yesterday. The woman had been put in a room where the bodies were kept though. I don't think they even know if you survived the surgery."

"Tell them," suddenly Sawyer panicked. "Tell them not to leave without me!"

"They can't leave," she shook her head. "They'll be killed if they try."

"Tell them that," Sawyer was in pain but needed to say this. "You have to tell them not to try anything stupid because they will."

"I thought he was a doctor, isn't he smarter than that?"

Sawyer let out a low laugh.

"You'd be surprised, kid."

For a while Alex stayed and they sat in silence. She promised that next time she visited she'd give him something for the pain but right now the supplies is being watched carefully because it's scarce. That was why so many people died, because there weren't enough antibiotics to go around. But with Alex stealing them for Sawyer, his chances improved.

Finally she stood.

"Will you come back?" Sawyer asked quietly.

"I promise," Alex replied.

Sawyer watched her go with strange appreciation. He was practically dead here, stuck without any kind of choice as to what to do. He couldn't move let alone get up and try to escape. In his mind he feared Kate and Jack believed he was dead and would leave without him. He could never escape on his own.

It was the first time Sawyer had admitted vulnerability to himself and he hated it. He closed his eyes with the pain and drifted back to an uneasy sleep.

……………………..

Penny didn't know who it was and didn't want to know. From the instinct in her gut she felt this was not someone to mess with.

Turning she ran as fast as she could in the other direction. Glancing over her shoulder she saw he had started down the beach. She flew up the beach and saw an opening at the beginning of the jungle and ran through it, running among the trees until the path ended in a strange stone staircase set into the earth. She went down it into a small circle lined with stone. On one end was a large opening with carved designs into pillars above an opening of only about five feet by four feet. Without even looking back she hurried inside the darkness.

From the light that was shining through the entrance she could see it was a short tunnel. As she came out, she realized she was in some kind of temple. It was a large room carved completely of stone. In the center was what looked like a roughly made throne and on each side broken torches. Along the walls were hieroglyphics, none of which made sense. There was light coming through several small holes in the upper walls, shining long streams of sunlight onto certain spots on the floor. The entire room had a musty, dirty smell to it and it was cooler than outside in here.

There was scuffling and she sprinted to a doorway just off the main room, fearing he was right behind her. She entered a smaller room with many chains along the walls and a large stone table that had fallen and was now at a slant.

She dove behind it, pulling in her legs and sitting against the wall to hide herself. She couldn't believe she was hiding from someone. Was this Fiji? If it was maybe she could find some police to help her. But then again hadn't they passed Fiji a while ago? She couldn't remember and all she knew was that right before the boat smashed into the rocks they heard that strange recording over the transmitter.

She suddenly stopped breathing when there was the sound of bare feet walking into the chamber she was in. She held her breath in the darkness, listening with all her might. Slowly the footsteps entered and stopped at the doorway. For a moment she could see this stranger scanning the room and then she heard him turn and leave.

The breath escaped in a long whoosh and her heart rate began to slow again. But she wasn't about to move. She had no idea who this person was or whether they would wait for her.

Looking down at her hands in the dark she thought of Richard and Georgia but mostly of Desmond. Perhaps this had been his fate, to get lost and run for his life. She had tried so hard to reach him and now knew she never would.

Penny cried behind the stone table, hiding in the dusty darkness against thick stone walls of ancient writings. She cried for Desmond and her baby, and for herself. She had no idea where she was or what to do from here and just wanted to be home.

Silently she stood after a long time and walked to the doorway. Peeking out she saw no one and went back into the main chamber. The sunlight streaming through the holes cast shadows as she walked. When she reached the long tunnel and looked up and made sure no one was there and climbed back up.

Back outside in the jungle she peered around. He could be anywhere. But she needed to get back to the beach. Maybe a rescue boat was on its way.

She hurried back to the beach and scanned it up and down before coming out onto it. Slowly she walked out and suddenly stopped when she saw another shape lying on the sand many many yards from the eaten Captain. This time she knew who it was as she approached ands tood over him.

"ROBERT!"

………………………………………….

Sayid looked down at the disheveled form of Desmond sitting against a stone wall at the end of the tunnel. Behind him was a block made of broken stone as though it had been put back together.

"Desmond!" Sayid breathed, bending beside him.

But Desmond didn't respond. He was looking wildly around, his hands clasped in front of him as though he were praying. His face was pale and gaunt, and he looked disoriented and as Sayid looked at him he saw Desmond's hands were burnt badly.

"How long have you been down here?" Sayid asked, not sure if Desmond could hear him. "Can you hear me?"

There was what sounded like a gust of wind coming up the tunnel. Looking at the block he was sure he could move it. Standing back up he put both hands on the block and pushed hard.

"No!" Desmond cried.

But the wall crumbled and fell forward. Past it was what looked a long tunnel of pipes and wires. Sayid had been down there before with Jack looking at the magnet.

"Is this….a passage to the hatch?" Sayid asked. "How did it move?"

"No, no, no," Desmond seemed to be rocking back and forth, his burnt hands clasped in front of him. "Shouldn't have done that, no no no."

There was no point in trying to drag Desmond along. So he left him and crawled forward as the tunnel became narrower. He hurried forward past where the magnet was. He found his fillings didn't hurt this time, and his one silver ring from the army didn't tug on his finger. The magnet seemed to be gone.

The wires and pipes were melted and cracked. The water was up to his wrists as he crawled forward and finally found the square of light.

………….

"Someone's coming!" Charlie gasped, grasping Locke's arm. In his head he imagined some kind of monster coming out of there.

Sayid stood up and pulled himself out of the hole.

"SAYID!" Charlie burst, jumping up and running from the bathroom.

"Are you alright?" Sayid asked, looking past Charlie to John lying on the bathroom floor. He entered and bent before him. "Are you hurt?"

"I can't walk," John said, his voice steady.

"Okay," Sayid suddenly saw the shadow behind the shower door. "Is that….?"

"Eko," Charlie looked down. He hadn't really thought about Eko dying and didn't want to.

"That tunnel leads out of here. It's our only way out," Sayid said, looking down at John and wondering how his leg got cut.

There was a slight rumbling and they all froze.


	11. Chapter 11: Escape

Kate and Jack didn't know it but as they fell asleep against the wall, the sun was rising over the ocean. The trees were wet with the dew of a rain that had fallen gently during the night. On one side of the island, people were emerging from their tents and preparing fires to make breakfast. On the other side, Sawyer lay in a semi-catatonic coma while Jack and Kate slept uncomfortably side by side, leaning against one another.

The door banged open and Jack jumped up, his eyes blurry.

"Let's go."

Someone grabbed his arm and started pulling him away as he tried to wake himself up. He looked back and could see Kate sitting against the wall, her eyes wide with fright.

"Where are we going?" Jack asked as he was yanked along the long hallway by one of Tom's servants.

"We have another job for you," said the man, pushing Jack ahead into the room he'd gotten the scrubs on in. "It's a complicated one."

"More surgery?" said Jack, still half-asleep.

"HEY!"

They had just closed the door when someone pushed it open and poked their head in.

"The woman! Something happened!"

Jack didn't even look at the man before heading for the door. He swung open the door and went barreling down the hallway past the man who had called into the room. He stopped outside their cell and pushed open the door to find Tom bending over Kate who lay motionless on the floor.

"She fainted or something," Tom said, standing up.

"Get away from her," Jack snapped, bending beside her.

The door to the cell closed and Jack looked up. It was only Tom and his servant in there. Looking at Kate he turned her over and felt her pulse, all the while keeping an eye on Tom who was directly behind him.

"I need help moving her," Jack said to Tom, who bent to help.

With a sharp elbow, Jack jabbed Tom in the face feeling his nose crack as he stumbled back, fumbling for his gun. But Jack caught the strap before Tom fell and ripped it away from him, twisting Tom's arm in the meantime. Tom hit the wall and fell to his bottom, holding his bleeding nose.

"DON'T MOVE!" shouted the other guard who held only a club.

Turning around, Jack shot him. The bullet hit the man in the chest and he looked down at the small dot of blood before stumbling backwards and finally falling to his side, not moving.

"Jack!"

Kate sat up. She looked wildly from the dead man to Tom, who was partially unconscious as blood continued to pour from his nose. She couldn't believe Jack had just killed a man.

"Come on!" Jack grasped her and yanked her up. He seized the dead man's club and handed it to Kate. As they reached the door, which had been propped open with a stone, he looked back at Tom.

"Now you'll know how it feels to be locked up."

Sliding out into the hallway Jack looked up and down. There was no one. Kate stood closely behind him, watching Tom with wary eyes through the crack in the door that they had not let close yet. He was barely conscious, moaning as he slid further and further to one side. Blood soaked the collar of his shirt.

"Jack, what if Sawyer…"

"He's dead," Jack snapped, turning to face Kate. In his heart he somehow wanted to believe Sawyer was alive but the only chance of getting Kate out without a struggle was to tell her what she didn't want to hear. He knew he was sacrificing Sawyer for Kate but he had made the choice. "If we want to live we have to leave."

"Why is there no one in the hall?" she whispered as they slid out, letting the door close behind them.

Jack didn't speak and slowly slid out and along the wall towards the other end, opposite where he'd gone in to get ready for surgery. They started at a walk, Jack holding the large shotgun awkwardly as they hurried. But then Kate started to run so Jack followed suit.

They ran as quietly as they could and reached the end which split into two halls that went terribly far in both directions.

"No signs," Jack cursed.

"What do you expect? A sign pointing to the exit?" she asked.

"Kate."

Jack had slowly turned and saw the man walking up the hallway towards them. He grabbed Kate and yanked her behind him. Raising the gun, Jack shouted a warning.

"Don't come any closer!" he shouted. "I'll shoot!"

But the man had no gun on him as he strode quickly towards them. Kate was breathing heavily. Jack raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

The man ducked in time but there was a second gunshot and Kate fell hard against Jack, and then to the floor.

"No," Jack saw she had been hit in the upper arm and it was deep. He bent beside her and grasped it, putting his hands on top of hers to stop the bleeding. Looking back down the way they'd come, he saw two people with rifles striding towards them from the other way. Kate was breathing heavily, holding her arm and clenching her teeth. She knew this was it, they'd kill them.

"You missed," snapped one of them, shoving the other as they finally reached them and turned their guns on them.

Jack remained kneeling beside Kate, his gun raised and pointing at them both.

"Put it down or we'll shoot her. There's two of us, whichever one you don't hit will shoot her," snapped the one who had shot Kate.

Jack had no choice. Slowly he lowered it, and placed it on the ground. He looked down at Kate's arm and applied more pressure to hers but blood was flowing through his hands.

Then he was hit with the butt of a gun and knocked out.

………………….

Robert was alive, lying on the sand looking around in pain. Penny looked down and saw his leg was broken very obviously because there was bone sticking through the skin. She held down her nausea as she raised his head.

"Can you hear me?" she pleaded, laying his head down on her lap. "Robert?"

"Penny," he coughed and she saw blood in his mouth. He was more banged up than it seemed. "Penny."

"It's me," she began to sob. Tears streamed down her face. Robert was all she had left, everyone else was dead. "Please stay with me."

"I wouldn't leave for the world," he said, still in his official tone. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," she looked up and down the deserted beach. "But we can't stay here we need to get off this beach."

"Dear, maybe we can find some help," he looked delirious as he spoke, his head sweating. She could see the blood on his leg and knew the pain had to be excruciating. But then she saw it. There was blood soaking the sand behind his head. With her hand she felt the back of his head and felt the gash, and how deep it was. "Maybe a lifeguard."

"There are none," she cried harder, laying his head back down on the sand. "I'm sorry."

"Did you see the sharks?" Robert asked, looking sadly at her. "They were beautiful."

She remembered them, and had also seen them dead.

"Why did he shoot me?" said Robert shaking his head and sighing as though having a conversation. "What did I do?"

"Who shot you?" she asked through her tears, playing along knowing he had no time left. "Dear, who shot you?"

"Michael," Robert coughed and blood spewed from his mouth. "Oh dear, why did he?"

Penny didn't know a Michael. She just sat there, watching the only other living person here with her slowly die. The sun was beginning to set low in the sky as she sat beside him listening to him babble on about stocks and bonds. He was gone, talking about things that had happened thirty years ago. As the sun reached the horizon and colored the sky pink and orange, Penny looked down and saw Robert wasn't moving much anymore.

"You should have pressed it," he whispered, his breath shallow. Blood was at the corners of his mouth and streamed down his cheeks towards his ears. "Why didn't you press the goddamn button?"

"I'm sorry," Penny cried. She cried for Robert because she had made him come on this trip. She hadn't wanted him to die like this, smashing his body on rocks. It wasn't fair and it wasn't right. She could see his chest had stopped moving up and down and his eyes had turned glossy, staring up at the now twilight sky.

"Shannon…."

Robert died there on the beach as Penny sat over him. She had known him for years, but had only gotten closer to him after asking him to help her find Desmond. She wondered what his wife would say. She knew he had kids, and that they were in college.

Why didn't I die, Penny asked herself? Everyone else did, what made her so special that she could live through something like that?

For a long time after dark she sat beside Robert crying. She wanted to go home, she missed her daughter and wanted to go home.

Then slowly she rose and started walking.

…………………………….

"What is that?" John asked Sayid who had looked up at the sound of the rumbling.

"No," Sayid leapt out of the bathroom and hopped into the hole. He peered down it, saw the shape of Desmond huddled at the end and knew it hadn't collapsed. But the slight rumbling continued and the puddles on the bottom of the tunnel quivered.

"Desmond is down here," Sayid said breathlessly, climbing back out. "He's disoriented. I think the blast may have effected him."

John was looking strangely at Sayid as though he'd never seen him before. Charlie noticed this too and looked from John to Sayid.

"You okay, John?" Charlie asked.

"I think I hit my head," John put a hand to his baldhead. "I'm okay."

"Charlie, I need you to find some kind of blanket. If we can string it between us and put Locke on it, he can help move with his arms and we can pull him through the tunnel," Sayid stood, ready to get started but Charlie didn't move.

"I don't feel well," Charlie held his stomach.

"What is going on?" Sayid asked.

"IT HAPPENED!"

They all turned to the doorway. In it stood Desmond, his hands red with burns and his face pale and almost ghostly. His eyes were wide and he looked as though he'd gone crazy.

"The world has ended!" Desmond shouted into the bathroom at them, raising his scolded hands to them. "It's over!"

"Okay then," Charlie shook his head, still holding his stomach. He stood and looked at Sayid a bit weakly. "A blanket? Anything else?"

"If you can find some steel rods. You might be able to take them from the ping pong table," Sayid looked down at John.

"Is this the end of the hatch?" John asked a bit sadly.

"I think so," Sayid turned away.

John had found this hatch with Boone, he had dug it up with him and then failed to open it. Boone had died because of this hatch, and now after so long they couldn't use it? It's damaged yes but it's also a shelter. John knew that if they could dig most of it out it'd be fine.

What was he thinking? John couldn't walk anymore. He reminded himself of that. Somehow he wouldn't let himself get upset about it. He'd lived so many years that way, why should t change now?

Because it wasn't meant to, his mind reciprocated. It wasn't meant to change back. The island had cured him and now it was taking it back. It made no sense and it scared John to know that someone had that power.

Sayid moved Desmond to the couch and was able to get him to sit. Desmond had gone crazy, and was babbling about the button. He asked who was on shift and how long it had been.

"I want to go to those DHARMA bastards and just give them all a hello!" Desmond was bellowing as Sayid and Charlie tried to rope together a harness. "Maybe with a big bomb!"

"I think we've accomplished that," Charlie panted.

"Charlie, he's gone mad. Don't antagonize him," Sayid ordered.

"Oh," said a voice behind them.

They turned and were shocked to see Sun standing in the hole to the tunnel.

……………………….

Sawyer finally awoke. He knew he'd been asleep almost an entire day. Many of the bodies around him had changed, and others were there, looking just as sickly and pale as he was. The pain had lessened, because Alex had given him a painkiller. Her remembered waking up for less than two minutes and then going back. When he was out, he dreamt about home, and food and different kinds of cuisine's.

When he was awake all he heard was the screaming. People screamed in agony all the time and unless he was in pain himself Sawyer couldn't block it out. He knew they would try to escape and fail, it was just like the doc to do that. But why leave him behind, because he's injured?

Alex opened the door and came in while Sawyer was awake. She saw this and hurried over, bending.

"Don't panic. But your friends tried to escape."

Sawyer's stomach fell.

"They caught them. The woman, Kate, she got shot but only in the arm. They're….they're roughing up Jack pretty bad but they're mainly targeting the woman because Jack will do anything…."

"Is Kate okay?" Sawyer demanded.

"Yes. I think they're helping her right now," Alex looked up.

Sawyer gripped her arm tightly and Alex looked down in shock.

"Tell them I'm alive," he ordered, his heart pounding. Every strong pulse of blood sent pain waves through his body. "Please."

"I can't," she tried to pull from his grasp.

He let go, too weak to speak anymore. As she stood, ready to go, she remembered something and bent beside him, whispering.

"I already did."

As she stood to leave, Sawyer knew that someone had been listening and had she told him that she had, she'd be in trouble. As Sawyer drifted off the sleep he felt the familiar feelings of gratitude in his mind before dropping off.


	12. Chapter 12: Angels & Demons

(Authors Note: I don't know why but it wouldn't let me post this chapter for like 3 days! I was getting so aggravated!)

Jack awoke to something that sounded like thumping. Soft cries could be heard and a sobbing. His head flooded with pain as his eyes came into focus. His temple was throbbing and felt three times its size as he struggled to sit up.

He was in their cell but they weren't alone. There were four guards in there, two were holding Kate as a third was punching her repeatedly. The gunshot wound on her arm sat untreated, bleeding down her arm and onto the floor.

They struck her once in the face, then in the chest, and a shot to the side.

"STOP!" Jack groaned, his head piercing.

"We were wondering when you'd wake up!" laughed Tom from the corner. He came over to Jack, his nose bright red and purple, swollen to twice it's size. He sounded nasally yet scornful as he spoke. "Enjoy the show."

"Jack," Kate gasped before they hit her again. This time the two let go of her and she slumped to the ground, writhing towards the wall. Her arm continued to bleed and she sobbed softly. The taller guard gave her a hard kick to the abdomen and she cried out, almost throwing up.

"STOP IT!" Jack pleaded, struggling to stand but he was too dizzy, his head still raging. "Please!"

"We should just kill her now."

Tom strode over to Kate and gripped her hair, pulling her up from the floor. Her face was red and bruised, and half of her was covered in blood from her arm. Her tears streamed steadily as she gasped, trying to breathe as he held her head up and pointed the gun in his hand at her throat.

"PLEASE!" Jack had never felt so desperate in his life. His gut felt like it was wrenching while his head could barely focus on what was happening. "No, please."

"You were foolish to think you could get out," Tom snapped, nodding to a guard who moved away from Kate towards Jack. "You'll learn never to do it again."

Without warning the guard gave Jack a swift punch to the face that sent him reeling back onto the floor. His head swam and he nearly blacked out, trying desperately to stay conscious. He slowly started to get up again and got another hit this time to the side.

"Stop it!" Kate screamed but Tom shushed her, still holding the gun to her throat.

After several more moments, they stopped at a nod from Tom. Jack remained kneeling, his forehead bleeding and his sides aching. Through the pain he could see Kate, also kneeling across the room from him.

"Why are you doing this?" Jack asked quietly.

No one spoke. Tom moved away from Kate towards Jack and pointed his gun at Jack's face.

"Because we can."

……………………………………..

"What are you doing?" Sayid demanded, hurrying over to help her out.

"Sayid you need to come back!" Sun exclaimed, looking around in horror at the devastation in the hatch. "Everyone is sick."

"Sick?" Desmond had spoken up.

"Yes, everyone except Claire and her baby," Sun took note of John and Charlie also being okay. "We need you!"

"I'm not a doctor," Sayid said firmly, moving to help Charlie put Locke on the sling to move him. "There is not much I can do."

"Jack is gone, we need your help!" she insisted, looking rather nervous.

"And why aren't you sick?" Desmond asked.

"I…I don't know," Sun looked confused. "Jin isn't feeling well, I figured I would too. Maybe being pregnant effects it…"

"Pregnant?" Desmond's eyes grew wide.

"We need to move," Sayid and Charlie had moved John onto the sling and were now effectively moving him towards the hole.

"They did it didn't they?" Desmond was approaching Sun who was backing up.

"What?" she asked confusedly, looking around at them for help.

"It's not yours," his eyes grew wide as he approached her. "It's theirs."

Desmond had reached out and grabbed Sun's wrist. With a sharp punch, Sayid had sent him flying backwards into the coffee table and onto the couch. Looking at Sun, he visually asked if she was okay and she nodded.

"Okay, you first," Sayid helped Sun back into the hole. "I need you to go ahead of us and tell Jin we're going to need his help…"

"I told you, he's sick. It came on quickly, they can barely move," she looked terrified as she stood in the hole, which came up to her waist. She looked up at Sayid desperately.

Sayid looked back at Desmond. Was it possible that Desmond was right about the illness? Had the explosion that had taken place dispersed some kind of sickness that was now effecting everyone? But what were Sun, Sayid, Claire, and Aaron's excuse? Sayid felt fine, other than completely exhausted and drained he felt fine.

"Let's focus on this right now," Sayid said, hoping they didn't sense the fear in his voice. Jack wasn't here and suddenly everyone expected him to be a leader. "Ready, let's go."

………………………………

Penny walked slowly down the beach, unsure of what to do next. It was possible this wasn't a deserted island, that people inhabited it just on the other side of in hidden places. She had heard about tribes using specific islands as bases and they appeared deserted when they were actually teeming with communities. Based on her encounter with one of them, she didn't want to meet any more welcoming committees.

She walked for a long time in the darkness, and remained close to the water. For some reason it gave her great comfort to be able to see the water. She feared the dark jungle that lay to her left, and wouldn't even let herself look at it as she walked, cradling her injured arm.

Exhaustion was just settling in as she stopped. Up ahead was what looked like a dock. It stretched out far from the shore without any kind of markers on the beach for it. It simply started and ended right there.

Carefully she walked out onto it. It was long and at the end she looked down into the depths. Oil from a boat floated at the top. So there had to be people here because someone had to have built this dock. It wasn't as old as the temple she'd been in, and a boat had been here recently.

Returning to shore she was about to continue when she heard voices. Quickly she hid behind the jetty, which wasn't far from the dock. She bent down behind the rocks and carefully poked her head over.

Two males, one in khaki colored clothing and the other in ripped jeans and no shirt were standing on the other side in front of a doorway that seemed to lead right into the rocks. Both of them held guns and the one with the khaki colored clothing was talking.

"The girl was cute," he said, sighing tiredly.

"I just don't get it," sighed the jean wearing man.

"What?"

"The whole fake out thing. I mean, their plane crashed it doesn't make them morons."

"Keep your voice down. What the boss wants the boss gets. Do you question him?" khaki man seemed almost imposing.

"No. I just want my pay so I can get off."

"You will, brother."

Penny crouched even lower, her mind reeling. So they were being paid to stand there. But what was their job and why had someone wearing the same khaki colored clothing attacked her? Very carefully she moved down the jetty until she was practically in the water. Then she slid over them carefully. Remaining low against the rocks she slid past them, knee deep in water as it sloshed against the rocks around her. Finally she was far enough that she could hurry out and up the beach to the shelter of the trees.

She hadn't gotten ten feet when she saw a campfire.

………………………………………………

"Charlie, can you get John back to camp?" Sayid asked once they had gotten John out of the tunnel. It had taken almost two hours to drag him out. Now they sat on the ground in the dark, panting.

Without waiting for an answer Sayid took off with Sun towards the beach. She was pale and looked frightened as they walked. Sayid wondered what Desmond had meant about it not being hers. Desmond had crawled out behind them and just remained standing there, doing nothing. Sayid was pretty sure his brain had been altered by whatever had happened.

"Claire!"

Sun had shouted out to Claire who was nearest to them as they came out onto the beach. She hurried from her tent, Aaron in her arms.

"Why is everybody sick?" Claire asked Sayid. But he noticed she looked pale herself.

"Do you feel alright?" Sun asked Claire.

"Yes," Claire nodded, though her brow was sweating.

"Perhaps it is just hitting you more slowly," Sayid suggested.

"No! I can't get sick, Aaron needs me," she turned around and hurried back to her tent, trying to hide a cough.

"Where is Jack?" asked Bernard, hurrying up to them breathlessly. "Something's wrong with Rose."

Sayid and Sun followed Bernard down the beach. As they passed tents, they saw people inside lying down or sitting up coughing, or throwing up. Several looked ghostly as they lay, some with strange looking sores on their hands.

They reached Bernard's tent where Rose sat weakly against a tree, looking exhausted.

"She suddenly got so sick," Bernard said worriedly, taking his wife's hand as Sayid looked at her. She didn't look sick like the others did, she looked weaker.

"I'm not a doctor," Sayid stood and looked at Sun. "I don't know what to do."

"All these people are sick!" Sun exclaimed. She looked terrified and hugged her arms to herself, shivering. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Sayid said, panic filling him.

…………………………..

After what felt like an eternity, the door shut leaving Kate and Jack alone. As slowly as he could, Jack crawled over to Kate. She lay on the ground, her back to him. Her bleeding arm was soaking her shirt and Jack quickly put a hand over it. She winced and he turned her over.

In the dim light her pale face looked almost angelic.

"I'm going to save you," he promised her.

But she didn't believe him.

Suddenly the door opened again. Kate had lost consciousness and Jack remained kneeling above her, one hand on her wound.

In slid Alex, shutting the door partially behind her.

"I have a message from Sawyer," she hissed very quickly.

Jack couldn't stand but straightened up considerably. Sawyer was alive?

"He says he's alive and not to leave without him," she whispered, looking around.

"Thank…"

Before he could thank her she had left.

…………………………………………..

"Something happened."

Sawyer looked at Alex with wide eyes. He was able to sit up against the wall now although not for long. He was still in an enormous amount of pain but seemed to be recovering faster than anyone else in the room thanks to Alex sneaking him extra antibiotics.

"What?" he demanded, his heart beginning to pound.

"Well, when they tried to escape…" Alex didn't know how to say it. "Jack hit one of the boss's and he got really angry and roughed them up."

"You said Kate got shot," Sawyer spat. His anger wasn't towards Alex but towards Tom. "Is she okay?"

"I don't know. They're not giving Jack anything to treat her with."

"That guy could make a splint out of earwax," Sawyer shook his head. "So they did try to leave without me…"

"Yes but I told them you were alive so now they wont try it again," she whispered, the room still dark but she still kept her voice down. "How are you feeling?"

"Why are you helping me? You could have just let me die," he said suddenly.

"I've told you before," she turned away, putting the things back in the blanket she carried full of her stolen supplies.

"You could benefit from this, maybe whisper a lie or two to your boss to get us in trouble. Why help us?" he was suddenly angry. He was angry at the pain he was in and at the fact that Jack hadn't even tried to come look for him.

"Because I wanted to," she snapped, suddenly her own rage flaring inside. "Be grateful."

Sawyer didn't say anything. He didn't expect Alex to jump back at him so fiercely. He was generally grateful for her help but also somehow suspicious.

"ALEX!"

Sawyer jumped as did Alex. Standing in the doorway was a guard holding a club. He strode quickly over to Alex but before he could Sawyer had lowered his hand and covered the blanket in which she had kept her things. In a swift movement he had moved it under his own small mat and out of sight.

"What are you doing in here?" snapped the guard, yanking her up.

"I was checking on the patients…"

"You're not to talk to them," the guard threw a glare at Sawyer and Sawyer returned it.

Alex nodded and quickly strode from the room. The guard continued to glare at Sawyer.

"What, you wanna start with a crippled guy?" Sawyer spat, curling his lip. "Wow, that's tough of you."

Without another word the guard gave a huff and hurried from the room. Sawyer let out the breath he'd been holding and looked down at the lump in the mat, praying she'd come back before anyone else found them.


	13. Chapter 13: Interrogation

Sayid felt like the entire world was collapsing around him. He stood there as he watched people lying in their tents up the beach, others rushing away to be sick. Those who weren't as sick were aiding the worst, and some just weren't moving at all.

He ran up and down the beach, unsure of what to do. He kept peering into tents, seeing the state of everyone. After a half an hour of bringing water to some, and helping others to their tents, there was a scream down the beach.

Sayid took off running towards where Sun stood, her hands over her mouth as she stepped outside a tent. Inside was a woman of about thirty kneeling over a man whose face was pale and eyes stared up at the canvas.

"He's dead," Sun whispered, before hurrying away looking sick.

"Are you sure?" Sayid knelt and felt the man's wrist. It was cold, and there was no pulse. Bowing his head he said a silent prayer and then stood.

"Where are you going?" Sun asked, looking weak as she hurried over to him. He began to walk quickly down the beach.

"I need the boat," he said firmly, his hands shaking slightly. "Where's your husband?"

"He's not well either. He's sick. You can't manage the boat alone," she exclaimed, hurrying beside him.

"He'll have to try," Sayid reached Jin and Sun's tent. Inside, Jin was sitting up but looking pale and sweaty. When he saw Sayid he stood.

"Tell him I need the boat ready," Sayid said to Sun who began speaking very quickly in Korean to Jin, who nodded slowly. "I would do it if I knew how."

Jin said something back to Sun which made her stop and look at him confusedly. He repeated what he said and she looked at Sayid.

"He said he thinks this has something to do with the hatch collapsing," she said, glancing back at her husband.

"Can you get it ready?" Sayid asked, hoping his shaking hands weren't noticeable.

Sun translated and Jin nodded, taking a deep quivering breath. He didn't look well. He slowly stepped out of the tent and hurried down the beach. They had anchored the boat to some rocks a bit off shore. Sun watched Jin go and turned nervously back to Sayid.

"And what will you do?" she asked as Sayid started off back towards the tents.

"I need to tell John and Charlie that I'm leaving. They'll have to take care of things for a while," he spoke rapidly as he walked. Sun practically had to jog to keep up with him.

"No, I mean with the boat. Where will you go?"

Sayid stopped and looked up at the many tents in their camp. There were the sounds of people coughing and others moaning in pain. Whatever it was that was making them sick was giving them flu symptoms magnified by one hundred. But what could possibly have killed that man?

"I'm going to find Jack," Sayid said.

……………………………………..

"Kate?"

Jack had sat up after falling asleep again. He had fought it off as hard as he could but finally succumbed to an uneasy slumber. Now he was jerked awake by a fresh pain in his face from being punched. His mouth felt like it was double it's size and his ribs ached. Looking around he didn't see her.

"Kate?" he repeated.

But she wasn't in the cell.

Down the hall, Kate was thrown into a hard metal chair. She let out a small cry by accident. Her entire body was in pain, her wounded arm throbbing so badly she could have screamed. She didn't dare look at it, knowing that if she saw how bad it was she'd terrify herself. She wasn't a doctor but she knew she needed it checked. She resigned to holding a hand over it, as blood occasionally seeped through her fingers.

This room was similar to their cell, but with bright lights in the ceiling. She sat in a chair in the center while the man who had dragged her out of the cell while she was sleeping walked to the door. He had surprised her, covering her mouth and pulling her from the room without waking Jack. She knew he'd freak out when he woke up.

Now she was left alone. She stared at the blank white walls. She thought about Tom for a moment, surprising herself. If she hadn't gotten in the car, if she hadn't gone to see her mother….that one kiss had meant so much…

The door opening and closing behind her ripped her from this. She didn't turn around because the pain in her arm was radiating up to her neck and into her side. She waited and listened as heavy steps came around the chair and stood in front of her.

"Not looking so hot, are we?" said Tom.

He had no gun in his hand, simply wearing his khaki clothing and a grim smile. His nose was still swollen from when Jack broke it and she took pride in realizing it must hurt terribly.

"I'm going to ask you questions, Kate," he said, beginning to pace around the chair. She didn't follow him with her eyes, keeping them straight ahead. "I want you to answer me honestly."

She didn't speak, just sat there holding her aching arm. She felt almost sick with it.

"Why were you on the plane?"

For a moment Kate closed her eyes. She could see herself with the Marshall, walking down that aisle between the seats, her hands cuffed under the jacket. She remembered how she'd thought of so many ways to escape. She had pondered drugging him, and then hurrying off the plane when it landed and telling someone he was ill. She'd wondered if she made a scene, if she could get away. But then it all came back to Tom, and seeing his bloody face, and the guilt kept her silent.

"I was going home," she whispered, opening her eyes again.

"Home where?" he asked, crossing his arms as he continued to pace in slow circles around her chair.

"Texas," she spoke.

"And why were you in Australia?"

"Why do you need to know this?" she snapped.

"I'm the one who asks the questions," he growled, the sly smile fading from his face. She saw his eyes watering slightly from his swollen nose. "Answer me."

"I was on vacation," she lied.

"No you weren't," he laughed and shook his head. "You lived in a trailer with your mother, you couldn't afford a vacation."

Kate's heart seemed to tighten in her chest. How could he possibly know this?

"See, Kate, we're not as dumb as we look. We may look like savages but we're on top of everything. Now, tell me, where was this plane headed?"

"Los Angeles," she spoke, keeping the fear from her voice. "Why do you need to know this? If you know so much, you tell me then."

"I know you were wanted for murder," Tom bent, putting his hands on the metal arms of the chair and leaning his face close to hers. "You're wanted to the murder of a doctor."

"How do you know that?" she asked, her voice quivering in fear, tears forming in her eyes. "How the hell do you know that?"

"All you need to do is check the papers, Kate."

From his back pocket he pulled out an old newspaper that was slightly yellowed. He spread out the front page and held it in front of her.

"Oceanic Flight 815 Disappears Over Pacific, All Presumed Dead," was the headline. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it would burst from her chest.

"Oh my god," she couldn't breathe, staring at the paper. It was right there, their flight having crashed. "Oh god."

"It has all your names," he opened the paper and folded it, creasing it. "And a nice big picture of you. You're a star!"

He turned it and showed her. Her picture was among some of the others, one of Charlie with information about Driveshaft, and the other about Boone who had been the head of a company. Hers was the only mugshot, though, with a price underneath it.

"See, even if you were rescued, you're not wanted back home," he was grinning as Kate felt like she could barely inhale. "So whether or not you leave here alive really doesn't matter. But some of these other people, well, they have families and jobs and….bands."

Kate turned away. She didn't want him to see her cry. Her blood was pounding so hard that she felt it throb in her wound. With every fast heartbeat a shock of pain sprang to her arm. She was gasping for air, barely able to open her eyes.

"Now Kate," he spoke softly but the menace was still there. "Just tell me the truth."

"You know it all!" she burst, her anger reaching a peak.

"Why was your plane so far south?" Tom demanded, bending close to her again. "Were they searching for something?"

"WHAT?" she demanded.

"Your plane could have been selected to go off course to search for this island, to interfere with our work," he was furious now and gripped her other arm. "Tell me!"

"I don't know!" she shrieked.

He slapped her across the face and she gasped. Shaking his head, Tom motioned at the door and a guard entered, lifting Kate roughly from her seat, dragging her to the door.

"Maybe your doctor friend does," Tom gave her a sneer before slamming the door behind her.

…………………

Penny crept slowly up the dark beach. The campfire was glowing in the distance, and she could see the smoke rising above the trees. She hurried, praying maybe someone had survived and was making a signal.

She came up to the fire and saw it had many large dark leaves in it that were creating very dark smoke. Looking around, she saw no one around. The warmth of the fire was comforting and for a moment she stared into the embers.

As she turned to look back down the beach she saw someone approaching from the trees. Her heart leaped into her throat as they suddenly ran at her.

Dodging around the fire she took off up the beach and took a sharp left into the jungle. She dashed through, scratching her arms on trees. Looking over her shoulder she could see three men in light colored clothing chasing her barefoot, what looked like clubs were in their hands. Her feet were flying under her as she dashed around trees and over logs. She splashed through puddles, hearing them shouting and running behind her. She was going deeper into the pitch black trees and no light was coming from above. She stumbled and tried to stay standing as she dodged under some high brush and suddenly something whipped around her feet and she fell hard to the ground only to be hoisted straight up in the air.

She was yanked up and felt her foot in a tree branch and she bounced, a rope wrapped tightly around her ankle and leg. She was almost fifteen feet off the ground, a weight having dropped somewhere, hoisting her up.

Suddenly the three men appeared below her. In the pitch dark she could only see the shimmering on their sweaty skin as they stopped beneath her, not looking up. She dared not breath as she hung, the blood rushing to her head but she didn't make a sound as they scanned the area and went forward into the trees, disappearing from sight.

Looking up, Penny saw the rope was roughly made and looked weak. But the fall was high and she knew if she cut herself down she'd get injured falling.

The tree branch that supported the rope was beside her as she swung. Using all her muscle from lifting her daughter, she reached up and tried to grab it. The first time she missed but the second time she wrapped her arms around it and gripped it, pulling her body onto it.

Her left leg was still wrapped but her injured arm was aching too much at the moment for her to reach down and untie it. She waited, breathing heavily, not believing what was happening to her. Why was she running through a jungle from strange people, why wasn't she at home watching television with her daughter and husband? Why was she so fixed on saving her former love, that she had no possibly ruined her daughter's life by taking her mother away?

Reaching down she unwrapped the rope. Looking down she figured she could shimmy most of the way down but with her broken arm she would have to jump the rest of the way.

Sliding to the trunk she gripped it painfully and started to slide down. She used the lower branches as steps and scratched her arms and legs terrible as she tried to climb down one handed. Finally when she was only ten feet up, she jumped.

Landing hard she rolled to break the fall. Slowly Penny got to her feet. She couldn't run anymore even if she tried. Her legs were weak and shaking and she felt slightly sick. Slowly she walked forward and spotted a small cove of heavy shrubbery and high brush. It created almost a little cave of leaves and branches that she slowly crawled into like an injured animal.

Lying there she stared up through the branches at the small bit of sky that was showing through. The sky was lightening up a bit and she knew dawn approached. Her entire body was too exhausted to even fight the sleep. She cradled her hurt arm and fell asleep on the floor of the jungle.

……………………..

Tom hadn't noticed but Kate had taken the paper, which he'd dropped on the ground at her feet. As she was shoved into the cell, which was empty of Jack, she waited for the door to close before opening it.

It was surreal as she read the article, which outlined the fact that the plane had suddenly disappeared from radar and wasn't heard from again. There was speculation that a violent storm had knocked out communications and then the plane had crashed into the ocean. If planes had searched, they would have only found small bits of wreckage. But there was nothing found. This paper was from two days after the plane had crashed.

She looked at the names and felt a sort of sadness. The families who had read this, the loved ones who had realized their husbands, wives, or children weren't coming home had probably broken down. Kate couldn't hold back her tears as she read on for six pages, which gave details about some of the passengers. There was quite a large article on Charlie talking about Driveshaft and how it was about to make a comeback. She smiled gently to herself, knowing if Charlie knew that he'd be extremely excited. Her smile faded as she wondered if she'd ever see him again.

Kate was surprised to read that Boone had been such a hot shot in the business world. His company was one of the largest Bridal companies in America and his mother would take over his position. She wondered how Boone's mother would react when she found out he hadn't died in the crash but had died afterward. Shannon's name was only mentioned very briefly at the end of Boone's article, which was even sadder.

The dim light made it hard for her to read but she read most of it. Some of the names she didn't know at all. She hadn't gotten to know all forty passengers and then some had died after the crash because of injuries. At the end of the whole section about the crash there was a disclaimer saying Ocean Airlines had gone out of business. Kate remembered Sawyer saying how much he wanted to sue Oceanic for all they had. She prayed she'd have a chance to tell Sawyer that it wouldn't happen.

Finally there was some experts who were quoted giving their opinions on what had happened. The most accurate one spoke of a magnetic field that could have drawn the compass off course, and into a storm. A lot of the theories included storms, probably because nowadays it was very hard for a commercial airliner to disappear especially with satellites and radio communication these days. A lot of the excuses spoke of storms knocking out the transmissions. Shaking her head, she sighed. If they were never rescued, they would never know the truth.

Folding the paper she placed it in the corner for Jack to read later. Folding her arms over her knees she closed her eyes. She kept seeing Tom, and the crash, and Jack, and Sawyer. Everything was so wrong, so messed up. Why did they have to go find Walt? Why did this have to happen.

Kate cried again, hoping no one could hear.


	14. Chapter 14: The Martyr

Jack was shoved painfully into the chair and he winced at the bruises in his sides. He looked up as Tom strode around the chair and the door to the room slammed shut tight. In the bright lights from the ceiling, everything had an unearthly glow and Tom's face was shadowed and menacing.

"We have a problem," Tom began to pace back and forth very slowly in front of Jack, whose hands weren't tied. He sat there breathing heavily, watching Tom go back and forth. "Some of our people have been getting sick."

"How?" Jack asked, suddenly worried.

"The button that one of your people forgot to press was insuring us against it, but since someone decided to be risky, hundreds of people's lives are at risk," Tom stopped and stood in front of Jack.

"What are you talking about? The button wasn't real," Jack shook his head.

"Oh it was real," Tom laughed. "When it wasn't pressed it released a dangerous amount of electromagnetic energy that acts a lot like radiation. In a word, most of the people on this island are suffering from radiation poisoning."

"Why aren't we sick?" Jack demanded, suddenly terrified. He imagined all the survivors, including Sayid, suddenly violently ill without a doctor.

"These compounds are made of thick concrete walls lined with lead and opposite poles which bounced the radiation off of us. Unfortunately, some people were exposed and are now being held in cells. They will die before the end of the week."

"Everyone who survived the crash," Jack said, his voice barely audible. He was speaking more to himself, his heart wrenching. "They'll all die."

"Yes," Tom sighed but not sadly, almost contently. "They will."

"What would fix it? This has happened before hasn't it?" said Jack quickly, looking up at Tom. "You can't tell me that all the years this place has been here and not once has that timer gone down to zero? Why weren't you watching it, why didn't you have your people there?"

"Because it was part of our experiment. We didn't think a jetliner would crash and the survivors would pry it open!" Tom was angry and turned away from Jack. "Because of your nosy friends, this whole island is in danger!"

"What is this island?" demanded Jack, his anger rising. He could barely stay seated as his eyes bore into Tom who continued to pace. "What is this place?"

"As long as pitiful people like you and your friends are here, it's nothing! If the radiation doesn't kill them all, they'll die off anyway. Then we'll have this compound up and running again."

"You kill people for it," suddenly Jack was on his feet. "You let people die!"

"We are the future!" Tom suddenly gripped Jack's shoulders and shoved him back into the seat, shaking with fury. "We are all that stands between the world and destruction!"

"YOU'VE DESTROYED ENOUGH!" Jack screamed.

"No," Tom suddenly calmed, the redness falling from his face. He straightened up and seemed to exhale deeply. "No, we haven't. Not nearly enough to change the course of history. See, while you were out tramping through the jungle looking for hatches and wires and life, we were watching. We know what the world is like now, we see everything. You were lucky to crash here of all places."

"And why is that?" asked Jack, his heart pounding so hard he was sure it was audible.

"Because we are the world's last hope," said Tom.

Jack didn't understand but didn't have time to ask another question. The guard had opened the door and hurried to Tom, whispering something to him. Tom nodded and the guard pulled Jack up, pushing him out the door and down the opposite hall away from his cell.

"Where are we going?" asked Jack as he was pushed along.

"You have work to do."

……………………………..

The sun was rising as Sayid began to prepare to leave. He had packed enough water for a few days and some food, but was mainly concerned in everyone else he was leaving behind. As he hurried to meet Jin at the boat, he stopped outside a tent where John and Charlie sat.

"How are your legs? Any feeling?" Sayid asked, bending at the entrance.

John shook his head, breathing heavily and wiping his brow. His arms were covered in what looked like red burns. Charlie was asleep sitting up, sweating profusely through his t-shirt.

"I will find Jack, and bring him back," Sayid promised John who looked desperate. "Everything will be okay."

Giving them one last glance, Sayid hurried down the beach. He could see where the boat was tied off, and where Jin sat weakly on the beach with Sun, waiting for him. As he approached they both stood, Sun helping a trembling Jin to his feet.

"He can't go," Sun pleaded with Sayid, practically keeping her husband standing. "He is almost as bad as everyone else!"

"You are the only one not sick, other than Aaron," Sayid said to Sun confusedly.

"Then I will go," she said, looking at Jin who was barely conscious.

"You are in no condition to help," Sayid shook his head, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. "It is dangerous what I am doing. If Hurley is right, the Others are hostile and have taken drastic measures…"

"I am all that is left," Sun snapped, sitting Jin down on the beach. "It is either me or you sail alone."

Sayid looked at the strong, determined woman and then to her ailing husband who was now laying back on the sand. Sun was pregnant, and he didn't want to risk her life. But she was right, there was no one else to help him manage a sailboat.

"Okay," Sayid nodded. "Let's get Jin back to the tent first."

………………….

When Penny awoke the sun was higher in the sky and she supposed it was around noon. She was stiff from sleeping curled up and extremely itchy because she had been lying on the forest floor. Her arms were covered in bug bites and she knew she was filthy.

What do I do next, she wondered? She supposed she would just walk the beach, looking for any other kind of civilization. She would have to stick close to the trees in fear of seeing another person in khaki clothing. She remembered last night, felt the soreness of her leg and the increasing pain in her arm.

Setting off, Penny headed back towards the beach. The jungle was fully alive with the sounds of birds and animals. She was amazed at how loud it sounded as she reached the shore.

Walking north, she wondered if it was possible that she was on a deserted island where savages lived. She knew it was probably impossible that it was deserted, with today's technology of satellites and digital imaging, but wasn't it possible there was an island closed off to the rest of the world? How else could it be that there was no other life on this island? Those people had sounded so cruel and viscous, maybe it was some kind of secret laboratory.

She had walked for only an hour when she found herself weak with hunger and thirst. She had no idea what fruit was safe to eat, and wondered how long it would take her to starve. Penny continued to struggle down the beach for another half mile before collapsing to her knees, shaking.

Slowly she looked up. Her heart seemed to tighten in her chest. Coming around the peninsula of rocks was a white sailboat.

…………………………………………………

Sawyer was standing, leaning heavily against the wall above the mat where he'd spent the past five days. His side was killing him, but he felt better than he had five days ago. He looked around the room and could see the other people lying sick, some dying. They didn't get the medicine Sawyer had, and for this he felt slightly guilty. What had made him so special that he deserved to survive out of all of them?

The man beside him looked a lot like Jack which when he had first seen him had scared the daylights out of Sawyer. But the man had thinning, grayer hair and looked thinner. He had a large scar running up his chest almost to his Adam's apple, and hadn't woken up in a day. He breathed shallowly and everytime he got an injection would whimper quietly until it was over. Sawyer tried to imagine this man's life, and wondered if anyone missed him.

But something strange had happened during the night. When several of the dead had been removed, others had come in. But these people hadn't had surgery like Sawyer had. They were covered in burns, their arms spotted with red blotches and their eyes bloodshot and watering as they were laid weakly on mats. There were about ten of them, and three had been taken out during the night, dead. The others lay motionless, looking as though they were withering away.

Sawyer was pulled from this memory when the door opened. Being the only person standing in the room, when the door opened Jack's eyes went directly to him.

"Sawyer!" Jack exclaimed, practically jumping over people. The guard tried to grab Jack back but he was out of reach and had gotten to Sawyer, looking him over. "Are you okay?"

"Man, I'm glad to see ya," Sawyer couldn't help but smile and gave Jack the smallest, shortest hug. Jack realized how odd this was of Sawyer but pushed it away. "Is Kate okay?"

"Yeah, I think," Jack saw the guard weaving between the bodies and coming towards him. "She was shot, but they won't let me treat her."

"I heard about your escapade," Sawyer said with a sly grin as the guard reached Jack and seized his arm.

"No chit chat. You're here to assess. The ones who will die, put a red X on their heads with this. The ones who have a chance, leave alone," the guard handed Jack a large red marker. "We don't have enough supplies to keep them all alive."

"How can I determine that?" Jack demanded, gripping the red marker. "I don't have any kind of tests."

"Do your best," snapped the guard, looking at Sawyer. "Sit back down."

"I'd rather stretch my legs," replied Sawyer.

The guard went to strike Sawyer but Jack grabbed his arm and shoved him away. The guard looked furious but seemed to think again before going towards Sawyer and resigned to walking back to the door and standing with his arms crossed.

"Can you walk?" Jack asked Sawyer, who was leaning heavily against the wall, holding his side.

"Doc, what happened to me?" suddenly Sawyer's eyes got serious. "What did you do?'

Jack didn't answer. If he told Sawyer what he knew, it could change a lot. Usually when people find out how close they were to death, it does something to them. As selfish as it sounded, Jack was hoping Sawyer would be noble and give Jack and Kate permission to leave without him.

"Your rib punctured your lung," Jack looked back at the guard who was talking quietly with someone just outside the door. "I had to fix it."

"That wasn't it," Sawyer looked very curious. "That kid, a girl, Alex. She's been helping me, giving me extra drugs and whatnot. She said you put something in me…"

His eyes went from yearning for the truth to sudden understanding. Sawyer looked down at his bare chest, where his scar remained bandaged, stretching across his abdomen.

"Do I need one of those red X's doc?" Sawyer whispered.

"No!" Jack burst, shaking his head. "No, Sawyer…I don't know how to say this but…"

"HEY!" the guard shouted. "Get movin!"

"It's okay, doc," Sawyer nodded, sinking down the wall so he could sit. "Another time."

As Jack moved away to begin checking out the people on the mats, Sawyer looked back down at his scar. Somehow, he knew he wasn't leaving here. Whatever Jack had did, it was the same as everyone else in here. Those who seemed to survive were moved out just as the dead were and didn't come back. Jack had done something because this place wanted him to, and now Sawyer was just another test subject.

Jack was nearing Sawyer again and just as he got nearer, the guard came over and took the marker from Jack.

"Enough," the guard looked around. Jack had marked only five people out of the thirty in the room. "This is getting us nowhere."

"Hey doc!" Sawyer said breathlessly, feeling increasingly tired. He hadn't been moving this much in a few days. "This one's a winner!"

Jack glanced at the guard and then went over towards the man beside Sawyer to whom he was pointing at. As Jack bent to examine this man, Sawyer leaned close.

"Get Kate out of here," he whispered as Jack realized he had already checked this man. He continued to fakely take his pulse as he looked at Sawyer with wide eyes. "And if you can, the girl." Jack nodded and went to stand but Sawyer suddenly gripped his arm.

"And do me a favor and blow this place sky high."

For a moment Jack stared at Sawyer, not believing it. He realized this could be the last time he saw him. Lingering a moment too long, Jack nodded and put one hand on Sawyer's shoulder. It took everything Sawyer had within him to look away as Jack straightened up and walked back to the guard.

The guard took Jack's arm and pulled him towards the door. As Jack walked out, he looked back at Sawyer who was still sitting against the wall and as Jack left, Sawyer gave him a salute.

…………………………………..

Kate looked up as the door opened and Jack came back in. She jumped up and ran to him. He hugged her tightly and found she was trembling. For a moment neither of them spoke and he just hugged her, a million thoughts racing through his mind.

"Did you see Sawyer?" she whispered, tears falling from her eyes.

Jack nodded and sighed as she stepped back a bit. He gripped her shoulders hard and hardened his face.

"He's dead, Kate. I saw his body," Jack whispered. Kate's eyes went wide and he felt her knees buckle. He caught her and they both sank to the floor. She was trembling terribly, her wound still open on her arm as she leaned into him, her hands over her face. He put his arms around her. "I'm so sorry."

"We're going to die too," she gasped. "They're going to kill us…"

"No they're not," Jack firmly held her against him, trying to keep his voice strong as he imagined Sawyer still sitting against that wall, and that haunting salute. "I won't let them."

"Jack," Kate leaned back, cradling her injured arm. Her eyes were wide and for a moment she looked like a little girl. "What's going to happen to us?"

For a moment Jack didn't say anything. Then he put his hand on hers, and held it tightly.

"We're going to get out," he reassured her. "I promise."


	15. Chapter 15: The DHARMA Initiative

Sayid looked down at the water as it passed beside the boat. Sun remained leaning over the rail on the other side, occasionally sick into the water.

"I'm sorry!" Sayid called to her as she was sick for the third time.

"It's okay, it's not the boat," she shook her head, turning around. Sayid saw her hands were shaking slightly.

They were silent as the boat sailed down the shore of the island. They were beyond the waves but close enough to see the beach and edge of the jungle. Sayid knew that even if they tried to sail away, to find help, it wouldn't work. There was no way to escape this island.

"Do you really think Jack can save us?" Sun said, coming over to Sayid's side of the boat.

"I hope so," Sayid whispered, looking down at the crystal water.

"What if he cant? Will everyone die?"

Sayid looked up at her sadly. He knew whatever was effecting everyone wasn't going away anytime soon, and he had figured that even if they found Jack and brought him back there wasn't much he could do. Without medicine and treatment everyone would simply die.

"Let's focus on getting them back," said Sayid, straightening up. Look where we are."

Sun looked up and saw the giant broken statue of the foot they had seen once before. They were closer now and Sayid could see where it had broken off. Parts of it looked scorched as though someone had attempted to burn it and failed.

"We should go ashore here," Sayid said, turning around and going to the mast.

"Where will we look?" asked Sun, helping him untie the ropes.

"Wherever we can. They probably aren't far from the false village we saw," Sayid pulled a rope and the sail turned towards the island and the boat swayed precariously, turning sharply. Sayid grabbled hold of Sun to keep her from stumbling, and the boat straightened out.

"And if we don't find them by night?" she asked.

"We will."

…………………………………

"Well, well, well, if it isn't old Mr. Friendly himself," Sawyer sniped, sitting against the wall as Tom came strolling into the room. "And how are you this fine…well I don't know what time of day it is."

"It's morning," Tom snapped, walking around the bodies and over to Sawyer. "And I'm the one who should be asking how you are feeling."

"Well I'm fit as a fiddle!" Sawyer said with a tight grin. "Never been better!"

"Ahh, yes," Tom shook his head, standing on the edge of Sawyer's mat. "Thanks to a little help from your friend Alex, I presume?"

"Who?" asked Sawyer, although his heart dropped like a stone. He kept his face, praying his eyes weren't giving him away.

"We know about her stealing and it won't happen again," Tom nodded. Two guards came over and hoisted Sawyer to his feet. He stood, slightly wavering as he held his side. "As for you, we need to give you a checkup."

"You aint stickin that thing anywhere," Sawyer said, eyeing the long stick in the guards hand.

Tom gave a chuckle and beckoned. The two guards took one of Sawyer's arms each and walked him towards the door. Not having walked in a while, Sawyer stumbled a bit, his legs feeling extremely weak. They left the room and went down a hallway where at the end were two open doors. Inside was a large room with a steel table in the center and plenty of counters along the walls.

As they entered Sawyer noted how bright it was in there, almost glowing. They moved Sawyer to the table and he laid down without a fuss, looking around.

"So what exactly did you do to me?" Sawyer asked calmly in conversation. All the fear was bubbling beneath his snarkish demeanor. Inside his heart was racing, pounding hard against his ribcage and making his stitches throb. But he wasn't about to let Tom see that.

"We gave you a new liver," said Tom as the guards strapped Sawyer's arms down.

"A new liver?" Sawyer dropped his sarcastic tone. "Why?"

"Because you were dying of cancer, that's why," Tom snapped, helping to buckle one of the straps. "You precious doctor friend didn't tell you that?"

Sawyer stared unbelievingly at Tom. Jack had lied. He hadn't told Sawyer anything of the sort. He had let Sawyer believe there was nothing left for him, and that he could die.

"I was dying?" Sawyer asked slowly, raising his head from the table as Tom walked around the room to the other side.

"Yes," Tom looked at a few papers on the table. "You only would have lived another few months."

"And now?" Sawyer's voice was trembling slightly, his eyes watching as two people in white clothing entered and began pulling trays over.

"You're cured," said Tom, standing at the end of the bed as Sawyer watched him. "And that is what we do."

Tom turned and left the room, shutting the two doors behind him.

……………………………………

"What now," groaned Jack as the door clicked. They had only been in there for two hours when it opened again.

"Let's go," said one guard, coming in and standing in the doorway. "Quickly please."

Jack and Kate hurried to the door and were quickly grabbed, their hands tied behind their backs in the hall. Then they were led side by side by the two guards down the hall.

They reached the end and went through a smaller doorway into a thinner tunnel that looked vaguely familiar. At the end Kate could see small bits of light around a small door. As they approached she realized this was where they came in.

Reaching it, one of the guards pushed it open and they stepped out into the blazing sunshine. Both Kate and Jack squinted, adjusting slowly to the light as they were pushed forward into the jungle.

The path they were on was wide and well walked. The guards pushed them along as Jack tried to look around and figure out on what part of the island they were. But he couldn't see anything familiar. He wondered if they were even on the same island.

Suddenly the came around a bend and were stopped.

In the field before them were two huge holes in the earth that were the size of swimming pools. Kate felt nausea rise in her throat as she watched bodies wrapped in sheets being thrown into them carelessly as they were piled up beside each. Jack's jaw dropped, seeing many people pushing, kicking, and rolling what looked like hundreds of bodies into these holes.

"Who are these people?" Jack demanded of the two guards.

"People like you. People who were fortunate enough to find themselves with us," one guard said, and Kate thought she heard slight sadness in his voice. But it quickly disappeared. "Now get to work."

"What?" Kate shrieked as her binds were cut and she stepped away from them, turning around. "Are you serious?"

"Yes! We need them buried. It's going to rain soon and it'll be harder after the rain," shouted the other guard, stepping forward. "Or would you rather be in your cell?"

"Come on," Jack said, taking Kate's arm.

"Oh no, you're coming with us," said the guard, grabbing Jack. "You're on body wrap duty."

Kate watched as the man pulled Jack towards the right corner of the field where she could see more bodies lying beside a large pile of what looked like old sheets and tarps. Her stomach lurched and she stepped aside, bending over some bushes.

Jack was shoved towards the pile where two other men, wearing dirty jeans and t-shirts, were wrapping bodies carelessly with wire and cloth, and pushing them aside to be moved to the holes. They worked wearily, their hands and faces dirty. Some had dried blood on their hands from the more brutal ones.

"How many," Jack whispered, getting to his knees.

"How many what?" asked the first man, looking sadly at Jack.

"How many are dead?"

"Take it this way, there are over thirty other dumping grounds on this island," said the other one, who Jack realized was a woman wearing men's baggy, large clothing. She had short hair and spoke with an Australian accent. "And this one isn't even half full."

………………………………………

Penny hid behind some brush and watched as the boat came ashore and stopped just before touching land. A dark skinned man jumped off and then helped an Asian woman down, carrying her to the beach so she would not get wet. They looked around for a moment.

But she was interrupted in her watching when someone burst out of the trees beside her. It was one of the men in khaki clothing. She let out a scream and darted to her left, feeling his fingers just miss grabbing her.

She dove through the jungle, praying with all her might that she could outrun him. Just as she was about to turn to see if he was still there she heard a gunshot that startled her, causing her to trip and fall.

Hitting the ground hard, she sprang back up but realized there was no one behind her anymore. Several yards back she could see the khaki clothed man who had chased her was lying on the ground, still moving but moaning in pain.

Looking to her left, through the trees she saw the dark skinned man rushing towards her. Diving behind a tree she watched him run by towards the injured man.

………………………………

Sayid let Sun down on the beach and she thanked him. They looked around, not seeing anything familiar.

"Where do …"

Before Sun could finish, they both heard a scream. Sayid raised his gun but saw nothing.

"THERE!" Sun grabbed Sayid's arm and pointed.

Barely visible, through the trees was someone clothed in beige, darting through the woods. Raising his gun and aiming, Sayid fired.

"I got him," Sayid, said, hurrying forward. Sun went to follow. "No! Stay here. If there's danger, get back on the boat."

Sayid ran to the trees and scanned the jungle floor. Looking around he listened and heard moaning. Suddenly he saw the man lying on the ground, his leg bleeding.

"Don't move," Sayid ordered, rushing up beside him and pointing his gun at the man's face.

"I'm not going anywhere," snapped the man, holding his leg painfully.

Putting his gun in his belt, Sayid bent and lifted the man over his shoulder. He had to get him back to the boat where he could question him without anyone hearing anything. Scanning the jungle he froze. For a moment he thought he saw a flash of hair shimmering in the trees. He stared a moment, unsure, and then set off towards the beach.

…………..

Penny knew he had seen her and waited with baited breath for the gunshot, or for him to appear around the corner and hit her. But he didn't. For a moment there was silence and then she heard his footsteps heading off towards the beach.

…………

"SAYID!" Sun shouted, seeing him approaching. "Is he dead?"

"No," Sayid started into the water. "I'm going to question him."

"But what if he's dangerous," Sun was panicking, following Sayid into the water towards the boat which was waist deep.

"That is why you will stay up on the deck," Sayid said, struggling to lift the man onto the boat. He was able to get him halfway up there, the man moaning and shouting in pain the entire time. Sayid seemed to not be gentle at all. Next, Sun came up and he helped her aboard before boarding himself.

"Stay away from him," Sayid said, taking Sun and pulling her towards the bow. "Watch the beach but hide from sight. If anyone comes, tell me."

Sun nodded, looking terrified. She regretted coming, thinking only of getting back to Jin. She couldn't imagine why she had offered to come.

Sayid went to the door to below deck which he and Jack and Sawyer had kicked in when they found Desmond. Instead of helping the man down, with one sharp kick he sent the man crashing through the entrance and to the floor.

The man bellowed in pain, clutching his leg as he lay on the ground below. Sun was kneeling at the bow, her hands over her mouth. Sayid nodded at her before jumping down into the hole.

……………………………………

Kate hadn't gotten ten feet from the hole before she was sick again. She stumbled, dizzy, towards the edge of the jungle. Someone shouted behind her but she couldn't hear, wavering as she walked away from the hole.

Jack saw Kate stumbling disoriented towards the edge of the jungle, and saw the guards raise their weapons, running towards her. They thought she was trying to escape.

"NO!" Jack shouted. "KATE! TURN AROUND!"

Hearing Jack shout, Kate turned and saw the guards rushing towards her. They hadn't even reached her before she fainted.

Jack had taken off towards Kate but before he reached her, had received a sharp punch to the gut that sent him reeling off course and to his knees, gasping for air. Looking up he saw a guard easily lift Kate from the ground and start back down the path with her. Struggling to stand, he went to follow and was shoved back.

"Get back to work," snapped the guard, his eyes looking menacing.

Slowly Jack walked back to where had had been. The two others looked at him as though in fear. Jack began to wonder if he'd end up in that hole too.


	16. Chapter 16: The Truth

Sayid looked down at the struggling man on the ground and reached down, grabbing his collar and forcing him to sit up straight against some cabinets. The below deck consisted of a simple bed and kitchen. A bed smaller than a cot was against the wall, and beside it were many cabinets on the walls leading to a counter on top of which was what Sayid supposed at one time had been a stove but looked as though it had been taken apart.

The man hadn't said a word, just continued to moan in pain at the bulletwound in his leg.

"What is your name?" Sayid asked simply, standing with his hands behind his back and his back straight, his eyes on the man.

"I won't talk," the man said through gritted teeth. "You'll have to kill me first."

Sayid gave a sharp kick and the man reeled sideways, clutching his side and screaming in pain. Sending a second one, the man flipped over and breathed heavily, staring up at Sayid with wide eyes.

"Edward," the man gasped, his eyes almost closed in agony. "My name is Edward."

"Edward," slowly Sayid bent. "Where are our friends?"

"I don't know…"

Sayid had ripped his gun from his belt and placed it at Edward's skull, pressing the point into his temple. Edward looked at Sayid with strangely calm eyes.

"You will answer my questions," Sayid ordered, his voice deep and menacing. "Or I will kill you."

"I would welcome death," Edward grinned demonically.

"Then I will shoot you in the kneecap," Sayid lowered the gun to Edwards uninjured leg. "And when you still don't answer I will shoot you in the other and make sure you don't bleed to death so you can still talk to me."

This guy knew Sayid was serious. He looked at Sayid with wide eyes.

"Where are the three people you took hostage?" Sayid demanded, the gun pressed against Edward's knee.

…………………

Something hit Sawyer, almost like a shock but it ran through his body and didn't leave. He felt like he was being electrocuted as suddenly his entire body stiffened and he felt his back arch, raising him off the table since his arms and ankles were restrained. Hands came and pushed him down as he let out a yell but it suddenly faded.

He could feel the cold table beneath him and a slight breeze on his face. Opening his eyes again he saw an oxygen mask that looked extremely old was being held over his face, although not touching it. He went to move, to jerk away from it and it was taken away.

"What the hell?" he demanded, breathing heavily. His fingertips tingled and he looked around wildly at the many people beside the table.

"The first one is usually the worst," said the man to his right that Sawyer supposed was what these people called a doctor. He had a remote in his hand. Sawyer saw many wires were leading to the bed and realized he probably had been electrocuted. "But now that your blood is flowing we can begin."

"Begin what?" Sawyer snapped.

A needle suddenly pierced his arm and he jerked hard, elbowing the woman who was giving it, causing the needle to break off halfway, sticking out of his arm.

"You will behave," said the doctor fiercely. He was an Asian man although he had no accent.

The woman ripped the needle out of his arm painfully and stuck him again with a different one. Sawyer winced, waiting for whatever they were giving him to kick in.

"If the liver we gave you isn't being rejected, if it is adjusting to your body, you should react normally," the man said, more to the five other people in the room than to Sawyer.

"And if not?" Sawyer realized there was fear in his voice. He was sweating profusely.

"You'll go into a seizure and we'll be forced to bring you out of it," the doctor said this with a slight grin.

He wasn't sure why but all Sawyer could think about was Kate. He would stay here so they could get out without having to come for him. But really, would they be able to escape? These people were nuts, performing experiments and surgeries on people without proper equipment. Yet he could see her face and would have given anything to find her again.

Suddenly something felt like it was stirring in his chest. It grew tighter and Sawyer knew something was wrong. He wondered if he'd die here, if this was the end. Looking up he saw the man who was pretending to be a doctor looked concerned and then Sawyer felt his eyes roll into his head and it was nothing but pain.

…………………………….

"What do you know?"

Jack sat beside the short haired Australian woman. He pretended to help her wrap bodies but was actually drilling her, trying to get answers.

"I haven't been here long. But I know that the stuff they do, some of it works out and some of it doesn't," she whispered, wrapping one body and pushing it aside without any kind of hesitance. "Like surgeries and stuff. Some people are okay and some die. I think more die than survive, though."

"But who funds it? Who pays for the electricity to this island? And if it has electricity why don't planes fly over and see it?" he demanded, his mind raging with questions.

"I know it's protected by something magnetic but that's all I know. As for who pays for it, I'm pretty sure no one does. That's why everything goes so bad. They don't have the stuff they used to have," she glanced around nervously, seeing if anyone was listening. "I think they were shut down but refused to shut down."

"But they're killing people. Where do all these people come from?" he asked.

"These are all recent. After they were shut down I think people started to try to leave so they kept them here against their will. I heard this all from someone else so don't quote me," she whispered. Jack was suddenly reminded of a prison sequence from a movie where someone gets the dirt from another inmate. "And others are stranded sailors, and sometimes I swear they take them from the mainland."

"But how?" he demanded. "How do they get away with kidnapping people? Doesn't anybody look for them?"

"I really don't know," she shook her head, continuing to tie the rope around one body. "All I know is once you're here…you're here."

"The button," suddenly Jack was reminded. "Do you know anything about a button that you push every one hundred and eight minutes?"

"Yeah, it's one of the experiments that went wrong. It turned out being imperative that they push it so they kept the guy who was down there down there to keep pushing it," she sighed. "Poor fellah."

"We opened that hatch," Jack breathed, his heart pounding in his chest. "We found that guy and now we've been pressing the button."

She looked confused and then her eyes widened.

"Were you on Flight 815?" she said so low that Jack barely heard her. He nodded and she put a hand to her mouth.

"They told me you all died!" she hissed, her hand going to her heart. "Oh my god!"

"Are you Cindy?" he said confusedly.

"Yes!" she said too loudly, lowering her voice and slouching a bit, glancing at the guards who hadn't moved. "Is Ana okay?"

Jack looked down and Cindy seemed to understand.

"Did they get her?" she asked sadly, not tying the rope she had in her hand, just twisting it.

"No," sighed Jack. "She was murdered by one of our own."

……………………..

Kate found herself waking up a bit as she was being carried back to the cell. She could see the white light above her but felt extremely sick. She knew it was probably from her arm. When she started to move the two guys who were carrying her lowered her and held onto her as she tried to regain composure.

Behind her was what sounded like a scream. She jumped and her vision cleared. She could see two doors closed at the end of the hall. She started towards it but was pulled back.

But the scream erupted again and her eyes widened.

Ripping her hand away, she hurried as fast as she could in her weakened state to the doors, bursting through them.

Lying twitching and moaning on the table was Sawyer. He seemed to be having some kind of seizure, his feet knocking around and his hands trembling. One of them held his head while another was injecting him with something. People stood all around holding syringes and different instruments.

"SAWYER!" she screamed, her entire body feeling as though she'd fallen into ice.

Kate? Sawyer opened his eyes. Was it possible that he had just heard Kate's voice?

Slowly he tilted his head, feeling weak, dizzy, and nauseous all at the same time as he tried to focus his eyes at the end of the bed. She stood there, looking filthy and ragged, and slightly thinner. She rushed towards him but someone intercepted her.

"Jack said you were dead!" she screamed, looking hysterical.

But Sawyer couldn't even speak. He was too weak, whatever they'd done to him had drained him completely. He felt as though he could fall asleep forever. But Kate's face remained in front of his eyes.

……………………………………………..

"WHERE ARE THEY?" Sayid demanded.

"I don't know!"

Sayid fired. Sun had been looking down the hole and had screamed when he did. For a moment Edward didn't shout or even scream. Then a wail of agony seemed to erupt from his throat as his hands went to his now bleeding foot. Sayid had changed his mind about the knee.

"I said where are they?" Sayid snapped, grabbing Edward by his longer hair and pointing the gun at his other foot. "I will blow off your fingers one by one…"

"They're dead!"

Sun had remained at the hole looking down, her hand over her mouth, feeling sick. When Edward said this, Sayid's eyes had widened but Sun had suddenly sat back, covering her face.

"You're lying," shouted Sayid, shoving the man hard. Blood was covering the floor of the boat, rolling side to side with the waves. The man looked faint, pale and weak.

"They were killed soon after they were caught," Edward moaned and he gripped the edge of the counter to stay sitting up, no longer screaming in pain but beginning to look delirious. "They're dead."

"YOU'RE LYING!" Sayid screamed, pointing the gun at Edward. "TELL ME THE TRUTH!"

"The truth?" Edward had reached his hand up. "The truth is you're all going to die."

And from inside the sink, something Sayid hadn't even seen, Edward pulled a long kitchen knife. Sayid seemed to freeze for a moment, not understanding, and then Edward plunged the knife into his own heart.

Sun screamed long and loud. Sayid looked up at her and suddenly raced up the stairs to her, leaving Edward's dead body behind.

She was backing away from him towards the bow, her hands shaking as she continued to scream. He grabbed her and pulled her to him, keeping her from squirming away. She continued to scream, the horrible image before her eyes. They were dead, they were all dead she knew it.

"He's lying," Sayid said firmly as Sun began to cry.

"NO HE'S NOT!" she shrieked, her voice echoing in the trees. "NO HE'S NOT!"

For a moment Sayid contemplated giving up. They could try to sail home, sail straight out towards the horizon and hope to find a shipping lane or land. But he knew there was nothing there. They would never escape this island, he knew that.

……………………….

Penny had heard gunshots but had only seen the Asian woman screaming on deck. She wondered if the Arab man had shot the khaki clothed guy he'd caught. She watched from the trees as the Arab man talked to the woman, and then disappeared below deck again, emerging once more and climbing down the side of the boat.

As he moved towards where she was she slowly walked. She kept parallel to him as he walked. He had left the woman on the boat. Penny wondered what was going on.

Suddenly hands were on her. All around her, people had begun to grab her. Looking up and around she found five men, all large and built, all in khaki clothing had seized her arms and legs.

"HELP!" she screamed as they began to lift her. She struggled, punching and scratching but they only held her tighter.

Sayid looked back at the boat. It hadn't been Sun who had screamed that time. Looking over at the trees, he saw something he didn't understand. Five of the Others were holding a struggling woman in their arms. She was dressed normally and was screaming for help, begging for them to let her go as they began moving through the jungle.

His first shot took out the tallest one that was holding her arm. The second and third got the two on each side and just as Sayid was about to hit the last one, he took off running with the other in tow.

Penny lay on the ground shivering and terrified. She went to stand and saw the Arab man approaching. She jumped to her feet, wavering and terrified as she backed away slowly.

"Please don't kill me," she pleaded with Sayid, who held the gun ahead of him but not pointed at her. "Please! I have a daughter!"

Sayid examined this woman. She had regular pants on, and a bloody blouse. Her hair was messy and she looked filthy. She had no shoes on and plenty of cuts on her feet. But she looked terrified, almost like she had no idea where she was.

"You're not from here are you?" asked Sayid, lowering his gun.

"No," she said, feeling extremely faint. She stepped forward and wavered. Sayid hurried forward and caught her as she fainted.

Lifting her, he carried her across the beach and towards the boat. Wading into the water he got to the boat and as gently as he could, lifted her on board.

"Sun…"

Sayid looked around. She wasn't on the deck. Why would she go below deck with that body there?

Suddenly Sayid felt something was wrong. Looking down at the deck he saw what looked like blood all over it. Examining his hands, Sayid saw they were crimson from the ladder that was covered in it.

"SUN!" Sayid shouted, going to the hole and bending to look in it. All that was there was the bloody floor. Edward's body was gone, and so was Sun. "SUN!"

Sayid had never wished he hadn't gotten on that plane more than he did at that moment.


	17. Chapter 17: Behind the Lies

Sawyer knew he wasn't on that table anymore. Opening his eyes he could feel something beneath him, it felt like dirt. Looking up, his blurry eyes only saw sunshine and shadows. Focusing better he realized he was looking up at the canopy of the jungle.

He sat bolt upright but grimaced in pain. He was still sore but it barely registered as he looked around.

He was lying in the middle of the jungle, nothing but trees all around. The ground was littered with leaves and brush and the trees were tight around him. There was no path in sight from where he sat.

Was it all a dream he wondered? Had them being captured and him being tortured all been in his mind?

Kate.

Suddenly her face flashed before his eyes. He remembered seeing her. She had said Jack told her that he was dead. A flare of rage burst inside him but he was trying to think, trying to figure out how he got here.

Leaning against a tree he pulled himself up. Looking around he saw nothing. It seemed to be about midday. Slowly walking forward he tested his strength. He seemed okay to walk, although a splitting pain went up his side if he breathe in too hard.

What could possibly have happened that he was let go? Was he really let go? Sawyer didn't know and didn't care. If he could get back to camp, and tell Sayid and everyone what had happened they could storm the place and save Kate and Jack. But then he stopped. If none of it was real, wouldn't he be near camp anyway?

He'd never been more confused in his life. Shaking his head, trying to clear it, Sawyer waked forward. He pushed his way through the trees, trying very hard not to breathe too deeply. It was agonizing as he walked, barely able to move. He looked around, feeling more hopeless than he had in a long time.

Suddenly there was an explosion to his left. The blast knocked him sideways and he clutched a tree to remain standing. He shouted in pain but recognized the horn sounding bellow that echoed through the trees.

It was the monster.

Turning, he moved as fast as he could through the jungle. The pain tore through his side and his eyes flashed with fear as he stumbled through the trees.

A second explosion of dirt and brush took place to his right, closer this time and Sawyer leapt forward, moving faster and feeling as though he could faint at any moment.

The horn sounded again and he looked back, seeing nothing. Just then an explosion took place directly behind him and suddenly he felt himself flying through the air.

He crashed down to the jungle floor hard, the pain ripping through his side and making his head spin. He dazedly looked around and then quickly went unconscious.

……………….

A man had seized Kate's arm as she watched Sawyer's eyes close and his body begin to seize.

"NO!" she screamed, trying to wrench her arm away. "SAWYER!"

The guard dragged her backwards into the hall and let go of her long enough to punch her hard in the gut, sending her sprawling sideways into the wall and to the floor, gasping.

He bent, lifting her and dragging her down the hall. She stumbled as she walked, her gut wrenching, her mind spinning. Jack had lied to her. She could only see the redness of anger, and how much she wanted to strangle Jack.

But she wasn't being led back to her cell. They were in a different hallway. Moving further down, past busy rooms. More people were in this hallway, rushing to and fro. Suddenly he pulled her left into one of the rooms.

It looked like a doctor's examining room except the table was plain steel and there were no friendly pictures on the walls, just a counter on one side and a bed on the other. The man shoved Kate forward towards the bed and she weakly climbed onto it, not about to fight with him.

"Lay down," he ordered, his eyes blazing. He was young but extremely muscular.

Slowly she lay back on the icy cold table. It caused her skin to crawl and she looked around the small room, wondering what had gone on in here.

"Hold her arms," said a voice behind the guard.

Kate looked up as the guard moved forward and pinned her arms to her sides. A shorter man with wiry glasses and a pointed nose came out from behind him, approaching Kate with a slouch.

"Let me see the arm," he said to the guard, who moved aside so he could see her injured arm. She barely felt it anymore because the entire arm was numb. "She'll need a shot."

Watching in horror, Kate felt her heart pound as the short man moved to a small cabinet above the counter. When he opened it she saw inside, stacked messily were several syringes with needles attached. They were dirty, not sterilized. Her mind spun.

"Please," she begged, trying to squirm but the guard had her arms pinned. The doctor approached slowly after filling the syringe. "Please don't."

"You don't want to lose the arm now, do you?" asked the short man in a high pitched voice. "It will only hurt for a second."

She watched with wide eyes as it approached her pulsing, bleeding wound and she closed her eyes as it touched and she let out a scream. A young girl in the doorway covered her ears.

…………………………

Jack followed the others back into the compound as they were rounded up when the sun began to set. Strangely enough, Jack realized, he wasn't being separated from them. He didn't say anything as they walked inside and were pushed along one hallway until they reached the end of an unfamiliar one.

The group began to split and Jack went to the right with most of the men. There were about thirty people who entered the room on the right.

Stepping inside Jack saw many mats lying on the floor. He stared around as people walked to what was apparently their own mat, and sat down. But there were people who had previously been in here. They were lying looking ill or some looked injured with bandages.

"Jack?"

Spinning, he saw Alex rush through the door from the other side of the hall.

"Who…"

"Alex," she said quickly. "I helped Sawyer."

Nodding, Jack looked at this teenager and realized it was who Sawyer was talking about. Sawyer wanted Jack to save this girl.

"Have you seen Kate?" Jack demanded, pulling her away from the door to the darker wall beside it, fearing someone would come in to make sure everyone was in their place.

"Yes," she looked suddenly worried. "They're trying to treat her wound but they're making it worse. I think they may use her for one of their transplant experiments."

"No," fear filled Jack as he looked down at her. "No, they can't. They don't have to treat the wound. Let me…"

"They won't let you. Usually they take the injured or sick and use them because of their risk of dying anyway," shaking her head, Alex gripped Jack's arm. "You need to tell me exactly what to do to make her better faster."

"How? How will you help her?" he snapped, suddenly furious.

"I got Sawyer antibiotics, I can do it again. I got in trouble so they won't expect me to do it again," she seemed extremely smart for her age. Jack felt sorry for her that she lived here. "Please."

"She needs antibiotics," he breathed, wishing he wasn't in this situation. "And plenty of water. Her wound needs to be stitched closed or the antibiotics are pointless."

"I can do that," she nodded. "They let me do that on the dead."

Jack looked at her with wide eyes and she didn't seem to notice how strange that had sounded. He wondered exactly how long she'd been there.

"Why are you in here?" she demanded, looking around as everyone else was lying down. The room was dark except for the light coming from the hallway.

"I guess they forgot to come get me," he shrugged. "I'm sure they don't want me in here."

"HEY!"

Both of them spun around quickly. A large guard had appeared at the door and strode towards them quickly.

"You don't belong in here," he growled at Alex, who hurried by him without a word towards the other room across the hall. Slowly the guard turned to Jack.

For a moment Jack expected the man to hit him but then the guard simply turned around and walked out of the room.

"Hey," said a voice below him. He looked down and saw the shorthaired Australian woman lying on a mat below him. "Can I ask you something?"

Jack knelt beside her.

"If you do escape and you're rescued, will you do me a favor?" she sounded choked up. He saw the desperation on her face. "Will you tell my husband and son I love them?"

Nodding Jack slowly stood again. He couldn't understand why she would think he was going to be rescued. Shaking his head he headed for the door.

…………………………..

He left the blonde woman lying on the deck as he jumped down into the hold and then climbed back up, his heart pounding.

"SUN!" he screamed.

Someone had taken Edward's dead body, and taken Sun with them. He didn't understand how this had happened in the short time that he'd gone ashore. He searched the shore frantically but there was no sign of movement.

Going over to the blonde woman he shook her violently. Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped when she looked at him.

"You need to tell me where they are," he snapped, realizing his voice was shaking. "You must tell me."

"Who?" she demanded, pulling away from him.

"THEM!" he screamed, pointing at the shore. "The men who were trying to get you!"

"I don't know," she said confusedly.

Suddenly he had stood and grasped her wrist, pulling her up. She felt very shaky and weak as he dragged her towards the ladder down to the water.

"Where are we going?" she demanded thickly, her mind not very clear.

"To find the Others," he spoke.

……………………………….

Charlie watched as they carried the older man's body across the sand and up towards where they had placed the other woman's only a few hours ago. Two down, he thought wearily, about forty more to go.

Turning towards the sea, he searched desperately for any sign of Sayid's boat.

…………………………

Sawyer awoke moments later. The pain was too much, he felt too sick. Why was this happening?

But the horn sound was gone, and there seemed to be no more explosions. Getting up carefully, he moved off in a different direction. None of this was familiar but he figured that if he kept walking he'd either hit the beach, or start walking across the center of the island and would eventually see the highest mountain. If he could get a view of that, he could figure out which way home was.

Home, he thought a bit crazily. He couldn't believe he was calling a blank stretch of sand and some coconut trees home. Anything is better than where I was, he shook his head.

A small bit of hope was surging through him. How he had gotten out, he didn't know but he knew now he was free. He could get back and send help but he now knew he wasn't going to die. Jack had saved him by giving him a liver, and it was only hitting Sawyer now that he would probably have died on this island.

Out of nowhere there was a whirring sound and a dart hit Sawyer squarely in the shoulder. Looking down at it, he furrowed his brow but suddenly a wave of dizziness hit him and he stumbled sideways and fell to his knees painfully. Looking up he saw many guards and the man who had tortured him walking through the trees.

"He passed this one," said the man who had controlled the torture. Sawyer's vision was blurring and he fell to his hand only to have his arm collapse beneath him as he fell to the ground. "On to the next experiment…."

……………………………….

Jack walked the hall slowly, seeing no one in either direction. Where he was going, he had no idea but he knew if he had this chance he should take it to get out and bring back help.

Creeping up a second hallway, Jack froze. Footsteps approached from beyond the corner. Seeing a slightly open door, Jack bolted towards it and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

He was in what looked like had been a lavish office, complete with a mahogany desk and leather chair. But everything was dusty and boxes were everywhere. Through the dim light coming through the painted glass window in the door he saw many framed documents on the walls and lying on top of some of the clutter.

Slowly Jack walked over. Picking up the top one he blew the dust off it and read in the dim light.

"For Outstanding Ecological and Biological Research in Zoology and Physiology 

_This Acknowledgment of Achievement is given to_

_Alvar Hanso III of the Hanso Foundation_

_From the EZBP Association of America_

_On September 4th, 1970"_

Sounds like an excuse for a fancy dinner, Jack thought, shaking his head. He looked down at the box he was looking at. Inside was many folders sitting vertical, as though this was a reference box. All of them were dated. The oldest being in 1965, and the newest in 1987. Flipping through the folder Jack pulled out the last document in the box that was yellowing and wrinkled.

It was a letter from whoever this Alvar Hanso guy was to a cooperation, sounding very threatening. It was dated March 3rd, 1987.

"_To the superintendent of financial services_

_I received your letter with deepest regrets. The DHARMA Initiative has spent the last twenty or so years bettering the lives of those associated with it. The Hanso Foundatio, having started DHARMA, it is imperative this notice of cancellation of funds be revoked immediately. The media outcry would be far too large if word got out that the Hanso Foundation was associated with certain facilities and events that occurred while the DHARMA Initiative was being created. Having founded the Hanso Foundation myself, and then sold it to your superiors in order to gain more knowledge of this smaller branch, it would seem absurd to out the original founder from the inner workings of the corporation. _

_I urge you to reconsider the cancellation of funds. Over four hundred workers will be out of work when the DHARMA Initiative closes down. Not the mention the ecological effect it will have on testing sites. _

_Sincerely yours,_

_Alvar Hanso_

_C.E.O. of DHARMA"_

Whoever this Hanso guy was, he obviously had been powerful at one point and then given it all up to work on DHARMA. Jack remembered the logo from the hatch, and from many of the food labels in the pantry back in the hatch. For a moment Jack wondered exactly how complicated this whole thing was, and how long it would take him to go through these boxes.

There was the sound of footsteps in the hall and Jack suddenly bolted to the place behind the door. He still had the letter in his hand as he stood there, listening hard. Slowly, the doorknob was turning.


	18. Chapter 18: Resolution

(Authors note) I hope I get a chance to, but if I don't this will be my last update before I go away on vacation. I am leaving tomorrow night (the 6th) and returning the 13th. I feel terrible leaving you guys without updates for so long but I promise you I'll be writing the entire time I'm away so you'll definitely have an update when I get back. There's a chance I'll try to update tomorrow before I leave but I can't promise. But definitely check this thread tomorrow afternoon in case I do!

If you want to be emailed or IMed when I return and update please don't hesitate to ask!

Check out some of my other fics here while I'm gone. Also check for my HP fics (same username as here)

**Chapter 18: Resolution**

Charlie stood slowly, his head spinning. He had taken a short nap and in the time that he'd done that, things had turned to chaos.

There wasn't one person who wasn't effected. Everyone was ill, throwing up, and covered in strange red burns and stung and hurt. People were barely moving from their tents and those who felt better were trying to help them but to no avail.

The burns on Charlie covered most of his forearms. He covered them with his sweatshirt as he sat up, looking towards Claire's tent.

She was looking down at the cradle. All around her people were moaning, crying, and hurrying to and fro. As Charlie slowly stood, he walked towards her.

Claire hadn't been as effected as the rest of them, but she still had some small burns on her hands and looked pale. Aaron was completely fine, sleeping in his bed without waking as Charlie came over.

"How are you?" he asked, bending down shakily. He knelt on the sand before her and gazed up at her.

"I'm alright," she lied, wiping her brow. "I just wish Jack would come back."

"Sayid went to get him," Charlie said, looking down at Aaron. He placed one hand tenderly on the cradle and sighed. "How is he?"

"He seems fine. I keep checking him for these sores but there are none," she said, motioning to her hands which she kept folded in her lap. "Charlie…"

Her voice was terrified and small. He looked up at her and saw she looked more frightened than he could ever remember her being.

"If we all die, there will be no one to take care of Aaron," she whispered. Her hands were shaking. "If I die…"

"You're not going to die," Charlie hissed firmly, rising from his kneeling position and standing above her. "You're going to be fine."

Claire didn't seem to believe him.

Charlie left her for a moment to check on John, who couldn't move from the place he was in his tent near Claire's. He wasn't complaining, but sat there staring out at the sea as though all were lost. He had several burns on his neck and arms and looked rather peakish.

"How's everything going, Charlie?" John asked officially as Charlie came to the opening of the tent.

"To bloody hell, John!" exclaimed Charlie angrily. "Can't you tell?"

"I think it's time you go back to the hatch," John said a bit weakly, sighing. "I think whatever Desmond was doing wasn't for nothing."

"What…"

"Desmond injected himself with something every nine days," Locke seemed confident in this as he spoke. "Maybe that can help."

"It's gone. He took it all," Charlie remembered Jack saying that Desmond had gathered all of the vials of vaccine when he ran. "There's none…"

"In the kitchen, the lowest cabinet on the far right below the sink," Locke spoke breathlessly and looked tired. "There are three vials."

"You've been holding out on us?" demanded Charlie angrily.

"I thought it was a placebo. I thought it was just part of the experiment," John began to adjust himself to lay down. He looked extremely weak and red. "I think it may help."

"But three vials isn't enough for forty people!" Charlie panted, leaning against the tree beside the entrance.

"It's up to you, Charlie," John said weakly before lying down.

Stumbling from the tent, Charlie looked up and down the beach. People were lying dying in tents, and others were weakly trying to help them by bringing water. Everyone was dying. How could he trust the word of the man who caused all of this, who had stopped pressing the button and done this to them?

"Claire," Charlie hurried over to Claire who was now holding Aaron. "I need your help."

………………………..

Kate slowly awoke. She had been drugged because when they were treating her arm she had begun to thrash wildly. The guard had tried to hit her over the head to knock her out but only made her head bleed before the doctor injected her with something that caused her to slip into unconsciousness.

Now she felt hard floor beneath her, looking around, she saw through blurry eyes that other people were lying beside her and above her. There was a thin rubber mat beneath her and there were no windows in this room, only one thick door at the end. The people seemed to be laid in rows with two aisles between.

"You awake yet?"

She jumped, sitting up quickly, making her head spin. She held her hand to her eyes, trying to stop the room from spinning. There were shuffling footsteps and then someone sat down beside her.

Looking over, her eyes widened.

"Sawyer," she whispered, feeling very weak. She went to move but cringed. Looking down she saw her arm was wrapped messily. It felt numb but she knew that eventually the pain would come. She looked back at Sawyer.

"Hey Freckles," he said, his heart absolutely jumping for joy. But then he saw it. The red X on her forehead. It was small but it was there, and Sawyer felt his stomach drop. He had seen them bring her in here about an hour ago but hadn't noticed it until he shuffled over just now when she had awoken. "How're feeling?"

"Terrible," she shook her head. Suddenly she remembered. "Jack told me you were dead."

Sawyer remembered telling Jack to get Kate out and supposed he had told her that to keep her from looking for him. Nice plan, doc, Sawyer sighed.

"I guess he saw wrong," Sawyer gave her a smirk. He was covered in dirt from his run through the jungle. He had woken up here earlier and only now had gotten his strength back.

"Where were you?" she asked, seeing his filthy hands and bare chest.

"They did some kind of test on me. They put me in the middle of the damn jungle and some thing chased me down," he shook his head, all of it now was a blur. "I think it was part of an experiment to see how I've improved since the surgery."

"I'm going to kill Jack when I see him," she panted, looking pale. He supposed she had lost a lot of blood. He stared at the red X and it seemed to burn in his eyes. Suddenly he knew what he had to do.

"I think you should lay back down," he said, moving over painfully to let her lie flat. "You lost a lot of blood."

"We're going to die in here," she whispered, looking glazed. She laid down on the mat and closed her eyes. "Sawyer…"

"I aint going anywhere," he whispered back sadly.

Sawyer placed his palm on her forehead for a moment, pressing gently but not enough to wake her. Lifting it, he saw the red X had come off into his palm. Quickly before it dried, he placed his hand on his own forehead and pressed. Letting go, he knew it had come onto it. After wiping the remains of the X from Kate's skin, he slowly crawled back to his mat and laid down wearily.

……………………….

"Where were you headed?" Sayid asked as they walked swiftly. He had let go of her, trusting her to walk behind him. Now they were hurrying through the jungle.

"I was on a research trip," she mumbled, struggling through the brambles behind him. She couldn't tell him about Desmond, it would seem ridiculous.

"What were you researching?" he continued, holding his gun out as he walked.

"Whales," she said, hoping it sounded convincing.

"When I was in the Republican Guard, I was an interrogator. I could tell a liar from a mile away. You might do well to remember that. Now tell me, why were you out here?" he said firmly.

Republican Guard, she thought surprisingly? How could she explain to this stranger that she was on a mission to find her true love who was shipwrecked almost three years ago. After everything that had happened, she wanted to believe that Desmond was dead so she could keep going.

"I was looking for someone who got lost in these waters a long time ago," she said as he seemed to slow as the path widened so she could walk beside him. "But I don't think it was worth it."

"You were looking for someone in the middle of the ocean?" he questioned, not harshly but curiously as they walked quickly, almost running.

"He was lost at sea three years ago but I think there was foul play," she reasoned, not wanting to look over at him. She could feel the skepticism in his eyes. "I think my father may have done something to him."

"And who was this man? A relative?"

Penny looked down at her hand. Her bare finger seemed to scream up at her. There was a tan line from her wedding band but it was fading since she'd been in the sun since she'd gotten here. She realized how thin and dry her hands looked and remembered how horrified she'd be if she'd ever let them get like that at home.

"He was my love," she whispered, not really thinking about it. "I loved him."

Sayid slowed a bit and looked over at her. There was compassion in his eyes that she hadn't seen in a long time. Whenever she spoke of Desmond to her research group, they all gave her looks as though she was crazy. But Sayid looked absolutely stunned.

"What's your name?" he asked he quietly, continuing to walk.

"Penelope," she said. She was about to give her married name and then stopped. "Penelope Widmore. Everyone knows me as Penny."

"Sayid," he didn't seem to feel the need to add his last name. "And what was the name of this man you were searching for?"

"Desmond," she sighed. "His name was Desmond."

Sayid stopped walking.

………………………………………………

The doorknob turned and slowly the door opened. Jack pressed himself against the wall and his hand came in contact with something cold and steel. Looking down he saw a golf club leaning against a chair. His hand covered the top of it as a figure stepped slowly into the room, shining a flashlight around.

Bracing himself, Jack waited a moment. The figure was tall but not wide and as they stepped further into the room and went to turn, Jack raised the club and brought it down hard on the figure's head.

A shout was heard and the man fell to the ground as Jack gripped the club, bursting out the door but closing it behind him. There was no one in the hallway as he hurried down it, the club tightly in his hand. He wasn't sure what good a golf club would do against all the people in this place but he supposed he had a chance.

He needed to find Kate first. Looking down the hall he saw the hallway that lead to the outside. Sad, he thought, that he already recognized this place. To his left there was another hall that led further into the compound. Putting the club behind his back he walked swiftly, moving with speed but calmness as he passed open doors.

Suddenly he stopped. He had passed a room where directly beside the door there was a lab coat hanging on a hook. Poking his head inside he saw no one was in there and ducked in, throwing on the labcoat and putting the golf club inside of it, holding the coat closed over it.

Stepping back into the hallway, Jack continued down it, peering into the rooms on each side as he walked. At the end were double doors. Through the glass windows he saw several people walking around inside what looked like a small operating room. Across it was another door leading to another hall.

His heart in his chest, Jack stepped inside and walked swiftly across it, trying to look like he knew what he was doing. Only when he was a few feet from the door did he see the words above it read BASEMENT.

Suddenly the door behind him swung open and a panting man in a stained lab coat came bursting in, looking frantically around. His eyes rested on Jack but only for a moment before sweeping the others.

"One of the prisoners, the flight survivors is missing," panted the man, the stains on his lab coat looking suspiciously like blood.

"Begin a search immediately," shouted a tall guard standing at another entrance Jack hadn't seen to his left.

Everyone began moving and Jack, his throat tight and his heart racing went to push the door ahead of him open when there was a shout behind him.

"Where are you going?" demanded the guard.

"I thought I saw a light down there," Jack said, pointing at the steep staircase ahead of him through the door. "Maybe the survivor went down there."

"Nice thinking," the guard nodded. "You check. If there's any trouble, give a holler."

Jack nodded and went through the doors.

He couldn't move down the stairs quickly enough. His breath was caught in his throat and he tried to breathe as he went. He knew going down here would trap him but maybe there was some way out from down here. He would have to return for Kate once he'd gotten help from Sayid and everyone else. There was no way he could take on this place by himself. It gave them all a better chance if he escaped and got help.

The staircase was long and ended in a small corridor where two doors were on each end. One read BOILER ROOM while the other read STOCK.

Going through to the Stock room, Jack found himself in a maze of bookshelves. All of them were lined with tapes, millions and millions of tapes. As he walked, he saw there were long aisles of them stretching for what seemed like miles. He walked the long aisle beside them, seeing the numbers rising as he went.

At the end of the corridor was a single television with a very old looking VCR at the top. A wooden chair sat right in front of the television which was extremely dusty.

Curiosity overtook Jack as he walked slowly forward. The VCR was the kind where the tape popped up out of the top. Inside of the open top was a tape that read 000001 HISTORY AND FOUNDING. Beside the open top was a piece of paper with several names written across the top and a date. Someone had been researching down here.

Slowly Jack pressed down the tape. To his surprise there was a whirring as the VCR accepted the tape, and a light came on the front of it above PLAY. Backing up, Jack looked down and saw the television had turned blue. It was thick with dust and seemed to hum as there was static for a moment and then music, the same music that had played for Orientation. Then a voice began to speak as the DHARMA symbol came up.

"Thank you, and welcome to tape number 000001 of the DHARMA Initiative Log. The following presentation will give you an affirmative history of the founding and creation of this Initiative. Students wishing to research and study the DHARMA Initiative are welcome to take notes, and continue through the library of logs that is to be created henceforth."

Jack's eyes widened as the screen came to an Asian man standing on the beach, a very familiar looking beach.

"It all began here with the creation of this compound….."


	19. Chapter 19: The Hero

I'm at my friends house and we're leaving for vacation in like an hour and I was able to write a very short chapter for you guys! See you all on the 13th. 3

Chapter 19: The Martyr and the Hero

Claire was hesitant about leaving Aaron with John.

"What if he catches it?" she asked nervously as they approached John's tent.

"He can't. Whatever Ethan did to you and him vaccinated you," Charlie panted, huryying her across the sand.

"But you said John can't walk. What if Aaron needs something?" she pleaded, holding her son tightly against her chest.

"Everyone is in their tent. Nobody is going anywhere, they'd hear him yell for help," Charlie said, stopping and turning to face her. "Do you think I'd put Aaron in danger?"

"No," she shook her head sadly, looking down at the baby.

"John?" Charlie said tentatively, bending at the mouth of the tent.

"Yes?" John had been lying down and most likely sleeping but jerked awake and sat up quickly as though he'd simply been resting his eyes.

"We need you to watch Aaron," Charlie said, looking at Claire who hadn't moved. She was looking at John differently, as though now that his legs didn't work, he wasn't the same man. "Claire is the only one well enough to help me."

"Of course," John held out his arms for the baby. Claire hesitated and Charlie put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Here are some nappies," she said, handing him the cloths. She looked around hopelessly for a moment. "What if he gets hungry?"

"We don't be gone that long," Charlie assured her. "Come on."

Pulling her hand, he lead her away from the tent and towards the jungle. He could tell she felt empty without the baby in her arms, as though she wasn't sure exactly how to handle herself. She looked awkward and smaller than usual.

"What do you think is in there that can help?" she asked wearily. He knew it was slower effecting her but it was catching up a bit. Charlie wiped his sweat from his brow, feeling very sick.

"Desmond took vaccines that were protecting him from this. He hasn't broken out in sores but he's still acting crazy," Charlie pressed on as she followed closely behind. "I think if we can find the vaccine we can help."

"But didn't Desmond take all of them?" she asked curiously.

"Yes," said Charlie a bit angrily. How did everyone know about that? "John said there could be a few vials left."

"But there are forty sick people," she said slowly, thinking hard.

"I know," Charlie shook his head.

"Who do you intend on giving it to?"

Charlie ignored her question and pressed on.

Sawyer's eyes shot open. He could hear the door to the room opening and someone walking slowly up and down the aisle. Twisting his neck, he saw one lab coated man strolling with his hands behind his back, examining each of the patients. It was darker in here now, Sawyer thought, as though to simulate night. But Sawyer's internal clock was all off anyway, so it could very well be midday.

Behind the strolling man were two larger guards. Sawyer always knew who the guards were because they had a blank, idiotic expression on their face and were usually twice the size of everyone else. He doubted any of these guys could spell their own name. But they were brutishly strong and did all the dirty work.

As Sawyer watched, the doctor stopped above someone. Sawyer's heart clenched, seeing brown hair and wondering if it was Kate. But he had taken her red X. What if this doctor remembered giving it to her? But there were so many patients that seemed impossible.

For a moment the doctor stood above someone, examining them and stroking his chin. Then he gave a slight nod.

Quickly and silently the guards bent and lifted the person, who wasn't Kate to Sawyer's relief but a younger woman who had a lot of gruesome looking stitches on her neck and shoulder. She looked peakish and slightly green as they lifted her. She didn't struggle, and allowed them to put each of her arms around their necks and drag her quietly from the room. She had a large X on her forehead.

For a moment Sawyer felt like this was it. They would see his X, and he'd be taken away just like that woman. He wondered if he'd be shot, or suffocated, or murdered. Sighing, he knew he was doing the right thing.

The doctor approached and Sawyer knew he had to look like he was dying. Closing his eyes, he relaxed his body.

He could feel the tiny eyes of this man scrutnizing him and the burning X on his skin. He could almost see the two brutes that had returned standing behind him, itching to use their muscles for something effective.

Out of nowhere Sawyer felt two sets of hands on his arms, and he was being lifted. He made his body limp but opened his eyes as he allowed himself to be dragged away.

As he passed Kate, he saw her move slightly but she remained unconscious. His heart wrenched and he lowered his head as he was carried through the door.

"Desmond, did you say?" Sayid breathed, not really wrapping his mind around what she had just said.

"Yes," she looked confused. Her eyes seemed distant. "Why?"

"I don't know how to break this to you," Sayid looked around. They had stopped walking and were standing in the middle of the jungle. "But Desmond is here."

It was a look Sayid couldn't have described with all the words in the world. Penny's face seemed to drop for a moment and then brightened but not to happiness. She looked terrified at the coincidence, almost petrified at the prospect of it actually being true. She wavered a bit and Sayid put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked her as she closed her eyes, trying to steady herself.

"Yes," she whispered.

When she opened her eyes she was looking past Sayid. Her eyes slowly widened.

"Sayid," she breathed.

Following her gaze, Sayid saw what she had seen and gasped.


End file.
